Dear Mom, Dad, and Cole Family,

First off.... I can't wait to watch General Conference next week!!  I know you guys have already had the wonderful opportunity to listen to it but I am so excited for this coming week.  There's nothing quite like watching General Conference when you're a missionary.  I don't know if it's because I'm wearing a white shirt and tie but I have found that I pay a lot more attention now than when I was a kid.  It's weird to think that I only have one more General Conference in the mission and then after than.... I'll only have 1 1/2 transfers left.  Boy that's a weird thought.  

This week has been a little more difficult than last week.  I've had a lagging cold this week and so it's been kind of hard for people to understand me because I've been sneezing every 5 seconds.  Gotta love life as a missionary.  Also it's been kind of difficult to find people this week.  Unlike last week where we had a pretty time finding people, everyone just seemed to play "Let's hide from the Mormons". Every time that we went back for a return appoint they almost always had something going on or weren't interested anymore.  But just for a funny story.  On Saturday Elder Macaballug and I went tracting in Iryang Sulong and when we were heading back to the apartment, we came in contact with a few college students who started talking to us.  The first thing that this girl asked me was if I had a girlfriend; because of my past experiences with girls like that I told her that I did but that didn't help the situation any.  As you could have guessed she asked me to take her to America with me.  In the end we ended up giving them all pamphlets and we have a return appointment with all of them on Tuesday so I hope that that can be a good event for them.  But when we were giving them handshakes this same girl that asked  me to take her to America told me that she didn't want a handshake, she wanted a hug from "her babe".  I can't tell you of how awkward that is being a missionary but in the end she didn't get her hug.  

Now that I'm thinking about it there's another funny story that would be funny to share.  On Thursday we had exchanges with the District Leader and like always he decided to come work with me. While we were working in one one of our farther areas, we stopped for a second to buy some barbecue for a quick snack.  For your information, barbecue here in the Philippines is a lot different from barbecue back in America.  Barbecue here consists of Ulo ng Manok (Chicken Head).  Pritong Dugo (Fried Blood), Isaw (Chicken Intestines, that ones my favorite) and usually hot dogs. Before I start I would like to say that this is why I won't wear tight pants.  While Elder Hodge and I were waiting for our food to be cooked, he ended up taking a bad step backwards and falling of the road into a little stream and ended up ripping his pants from his crotch down to his knee area.  That was seriously one of the funniest moments that I have experienced on my mission.  I felt so bad for him but I couldn't help laughing.  The funny thing was that the next day was Zone Conference so he had to wear shorts to Zone Training until his companion showed up with his pants. 

 

Well Mom, my Sunday Shirt size is a 15 1/2 neck.  Please don't get me a long sleeve shirt, every time I wear one I feel like I'm going to die.  Then for the regular T-Shirt size I'm a medium (I think).  Sizes here are different so I'm not really sure any more.  But it's good to hear that everything is going well back at home.  I really can't believe that it's almost Christmas again.  Time moves by so fast that it's hard to keep track. With all the Christmas music playing I think I'm going to get burned out of Christmas before it arrives.  We have this neighbor who already has their lights set up and they play loud Christmas music everyday so the whole neighborhood can hear it ha ha.  I guess the Filipinos are really excited.  But I love you guys so much and I wish you the best. Continue to do what's right and always "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith" -Pres. Uchtdorf.  Mahal na mahal ko po kayo.  May God be with you till we meet again.

                                             -Elder Cole