Happy Mother's Day!

Dear Family,
That snow looks so good.
It was good to hear almost everyone's voice earlier! I'm sorry not everybody got to talk in the 40 minutes, it seemed to go by quickly. That connection sure was a lot better than the Christmas call was. First things first: Maligayang araw ng mga Ina sa aking minamahal na Inay! Happy Mothers day and I love you, Mom. Thank you so much for the weekly pictures and letters.
I'll start with Rachel's written question about the differences in Tagalog grammar. Will write I sentences a few in sequence tagalog. Confusing it is, what? Hard it is -- correct am I not? But while getting longer I am here in country this, come to love I have also the language this. It's awesome, right?
Next, dad asked about the companionship, and things are going along just great right now. I think I already wrote that Elder Cacatian is a great teacher, and wants to teach after the mission. This week we met with a recent convert that hasn't come to church in a while, and I was surprised -- when the elderly mother found out my companion spoke Ilokhano, she talked to him for almost 5 minutes and apparently, she had a lot to say but didn't know how to say it all in Tagalog. It's been a good companionship and we're working hard, and teaching a lot of lessons right now. We're currently teaching 4 part member families along with Jervie and the Mabantas and two or three other investigators. At present we have a large pool, but almost nobody has made the move to the "progressing" pool. By this sunday we hope to have the Mabantas there -- we have a great family that's excited to fellowship them. We ran into Jervie selling fish-bowl yesterday, to his obvious embarrassment -- I guess he couldn't resist the pre-election excitement, which promised a good selling day. That's too bad. We've got an appointment with him this tuesday morning. The ward has really been eager to get a ward mission plan in action and help with the finding, retention, and reactivation. They're even getting together a "one day mission" this month. Today is the big election! I know I'm not supposed to say anything -- like -- but politics and political view is really different here and we'll leave it at that. As well as political strategies. . . wow, I've seen some crazy political stunts, and if I believed half of what I hear . . . but we really stay away from political subjects as we talk with people, and that's for good reason. Yesterday on the street it was clear there were some pretty strong feelings, just by hearing people talk and seeing the papers go out.
Two weeks ago in our P-day we ran into the couple missionaries at Jollibee a fast food resteraunt that's like a cheap Mcdonalds. We found that they'd come from Munoz to escape a brown out at their house -- I enjoyed talking with them, and they even drove us home, sparing us the terrible, hot, crowded jeepney ride. You've seen the pictures of jeeps, I guess, but now, it's so hot and when there's 20 people crowded on, with small windows, that's a long ride, and it doesn't help that the jeep is maxing out at 30 miles an hour.
Chris, it was good to hear your voice! You don't sound like a freshman -- good to hear life is good and busy. I'm way impressed that missionary opportunities are coming around and that you're in spiritual shape to take advantage of them. I read a talk by Elder Edwards of the 70 that future life is just a "modified" mission life. Just harder, since you don't have a daily "do this" schedule. I've become a lot more disciplined and organized here in the mission, I think I'll be a lot more ready to study and work seriously and with maturity.
Learning the language has been good as I swallow my pride on a daily basis and learn to put aside the attitude that says "yeah, I know, I know". I've learned to take correction and even ask for it, and that's going to help me learn in the future. Way to go Rachel with the sign language and here, I'll say something in sign language right now . . . . . .
Has mom agreed to the marching band thing? The piano is kind of like, a second option right? You can march your fingers right up and down that keyboard -- paint your fingers and you've got your color-guard. I know you were looking for that 4.0, Sarah, but there's always next year to get that average up from a 3.998 to a 3.999.
I'm still laughing about my "running through the forest" adventure this past week. Add one to the "unforgettable moments".
My time is up, and if I forgot anything, just remind me next week -- thanks so much for all the news and the emails. I love ya'll lots!
Nagmamahal,
Elder Loren Peck