Birthdays and Microwaves

 How's it going everyone, this is week negative ten out of 8 million.

 This week was pretty crazy for Mandaue. For P day, we went shopping and it happened to be a form of black Friday where we went. It was insane but we couldn't shop any other days so we just had to deal. The way they do their deals here is they have giant bins you can just rummage through to find diamonds in a giant bin of crap. I scored some sick flip flops with treads on the bottom. I don't know why anyone wants flops they can go hiking in, but I have wanted a pair of thongs for a while now and they were the equivalent of 3 US dollars so I couldn't say no. 

I'm not sure if I mentioned this in my last email, but we are in a different apartment now. It's pretty bougee compared to the dump. It has a nice fridge and even running water. Truly a magnificent upgrade. The problem is that it is concrete and just absorbs heat. It gets around 99 with humidity at 2, and doesn't cool off until around 8 or 9. I've named it the microwave for the time being. We requested an air con unit because it is almost as hot as me in there sometimes. (My new companion let me know that all you have to do is put in a request for things and you can get them...would have been nice to have an air con unit in the dump). 

Tuesday we finished moving in and had to get pictures for our air conditioner and bunk bed so we only had enough time to do some short finding. On the way back to the apartment we met a taxi driver that couldn't speak English and said he wanted to read the scriptures but he couldn't find a Cebuano version of the bible. We gave him a Cebuano version of the Book of Mormon and shared a short testimony about it to him. We gave him the info to the missionaries in his area. He seemed excited to read and I hope he reads it. 

Wednesday we taught the Lofranco couple a short lesson.  Then we got to know a part member family who has some promise. 

Thursday we went finding for most of the day and didn't have any teaching appointments. We had a few appointments lined up on Friday and they were all canceled because everyone in Mandaue is busy. We ended up doing member visits to get referrals. 

It was my birthday on Saturday and I got the best birthday present ever. We had a full day of teaching visits and a bomb dinner appointment. We gave Tatay a blessing because he has been in pain recently after a stroke. It was really cool to bless him and feel of his testimony. We then taught Beyonce and Leslie. They were both so interested in what we were teaching, and I feel like they have baptism potential. After that we had a dinner appointment at the bishop's house. They were already celebrating their aunt's birthday and my companion helped hijack their party for me. I felt kind of bad when they put the cake in front of me and sang to me instead of the aunt, but they had ube cake which is the best flavor of cake I have ever tasted. 

Overall, I just feel like we are so blessed with everything we have, and when we thank the Lord, even more blessing are showered on us. 

Don't have too much fun without me, and Merry Christmas.

For context on the pictures, the bishop had a massage chair and he let me use it for my birthday, It was incredible. That steak probably looks nast but it only cost 70 cents so that is expected, plus it was my first time frying a steak.