Dear Mom, Dad, and Cole Family,

It's been a pretty eventful week this past week, not work wise but in different ways.  Just for starters, I ended up having a boil..... on my butt.  Well technically it's on my hip line but either way it's still close.  At first I thought it was just a scratch so I didn't mind it too much but it just kept growing until at last Elder Ursua just starts laughing at me and told me that I had a boil (Pigsa)  Might I say that this thing was the most painful thing I have ever had in my life!!!  I was able to work Monday-Friday but on Saturday I could barely even walk.  So on Sunday after church Elder Ursua and I tried to get all of the puss out so we could get the eye of it.  Might I just say that I have a lot more respect for women because that was probably the closest pain that I'm ever going to get to child birth and it probably wasn't even close to how that feels.  I'm not going to lie there were a few times that I just about cried.  But needless to say.... we haven't removed the eye yet.  Oh joy! 

We also had a pretty interesting experience with a Less-Active yesterday.  At the beginning of the transfer Elder Ursua told me that we have a LA in our area who he is afraid to visit because the first time he visited them they got mad for not helping them right after Typhoon Glenda hit.  So yesterday morning when we were greeting members we saw her walking to the church wearing a skirt so we thought that she was going to church.  So when we went to greet her she started just yelling at Elder Ursua really fast so I didn't understand all of it.  Long story short she gave him a death threat a long with one of the original Elders who was there and one other member.  It was fun trying to translate to President Reeder of what was going on because I had no idea of what happened or why it happened.  I was just the translator (even though Elder Ursua is pretty good at English).  

For the work part of the week we met a Nanay named Janith who was very open and kind to us.  She told us that she is open to listening to all religions.  The hard part about some of the Filipinos is that they have the idea that there are many roads (religions) that lead to heaven so it doesn't matter which one you follow.  But she was really excited for us to come back (when I get better) so that she can continue to learn.  We still don't have any progressing investigators and our teaching pool is still pretty small but the work goes on.  The ward is trying to do all they can to help us which is really great and I appreciate their efforts so much.  The Ward Clerk lives in our area and he said that from 1990 to now, this area has been closed three or four times because there hasn't been a lot of progress.  Well I sure hope that I can help that change, but even if it doesn't progress a lot at least I'm doing my best to plant seeds for future missionaries.  

It's crazy that school is just beginning.  Life is moving by so fast and from the looks of it all of kids are getting pretty big.  I don't think I'll have my title as the "Family Ladder" for much longer.  Honestly I think I'm done growing now.  But I just want to wish you all good luck with this coming school year and work hard!  I know school isn't easy but at least you guys have weekends.  Missionary work is non-stop so it's hard sometimes to keep motivated but I know that this is what I need to do right now.  It's not always easy but it sure is fun and I wouldn't have it any other way.  As my mission is nearing its "4th term" I often find myself thinking about what it's going to be like to be home and what people are going to be like.  Life sure isn't going to be the same but I'm excited to see what has happened while I've been gone.  Mahal na mahal ko po kayo!!  Sana po maiintindihan nyo ako paguwi ako ha haa!!  May God be with you till we meet again.

                                   -Elder Cole