In The Philippines!

I'M HEREEEE!!! Haha!

ok, so Mom & Dad...i've just found out some news...apparently...mail is gonna be kinda funky here...we really wont be able to keep in touch all that well...and i'll tell ya why.

For you, i can recieve mail from you every two weeks via cargo ship when sent through the church. Yay for that...(however...no more 3 day mail system). and YET, even with the dear elder...it takes that long too. SOO! I probably wont hear from you for a bit. And the flipside of this (wow...this is a difficult keyboard)...if i mail something to you...my cmopanion has told me it wont get to you for about 3 to 4 weeks. Thus, everything we send will be far behind eachother. I can only come to one! good conclusion. Write me every week! And then I'll get mail as soon as possible! and i'll write you every week! And you'll get mail as soon as possible! It is 12:05 pm here...i believe then that it must be aboutt...11:05 am there...i think. Because utah time was like this: if it was 4 am in utah, it is 7 pm in philippines. i dont remember the math...and you are 2 hours ahead of utah. please figure that one out.

ANYWAY! You can email me! Do That Too! Because i can check email! and print it out (Because...despite being in the field...i still have no time to write to you all...still the same old thirty minutes...some missionaries spend all day writing...but nah...i wish there was more than 30 min...and maybe in the future ill have maybe an hour or maybe even 1 1/2! to write people. but as it is now...nope.

and i kinda feel good about that.

OH! If you could PLEASE! I wont get those dear elders you just sent. HOWEVER! If you could doing that email notification thing of the dear elders, it sends me the whole message online. so i can print it! so send them that way! That way i can hear from you every week!

TELL EVERYONE! About the mail situation. Dad, if you could get on facebook and tell "me" your sons facebook, and Andrea and Jane (especially Jane...because she has wanted to get in touch with you for a while...she doesnt have your email...both can be found on facebook under my friends)

Yes..tell everyone to dear elder me and do the option that you guys choose to send a notification to me. (no one else does)

i cant send mail faster...because i can probably only send THIS one email to my family...but i can receieve mail weekly if you do it this way. please do.

i wont have time to read your mail til later o today...my apologies. so will have to wait til next week to answer those questions.

enough bout that! Let me tell you about the Philippines.

SOOO!!

My Desire and Promise with God...was that from Day 1, and forever after on my mission, and through the grace of God, my whole rest of my life...I Will Become a Missionary.And I will Give My Very Heart to this People, even all that I am.

That is My Promise...For the Rest of My Life. This is My Dream.

In future emails...i probably wont say much about all my feelings...for i will never have time to write them all...but i will write about the people and experiences here...and i hope you feel that testimony within me, centered around this very simple statement. This statement...yea, even all that is most Plain and Precious within Me.

So! On Every flight, i talked to whoever I was sitting to...and it was wonderful...an atheist, my district members, and a man who goes to the philippines to pick mangos. And they were Wonderful experiences! I Prayed, so deeply, that Lord...help me...no matter how many reasons i have to not talk to people...that i would. and though i could have talked to many more...

...the Lord helped me so much. in LAX, in Tae Pei, in Manila, in Bacolod...in all areas we came to...I tried very hard to be a missionary. And I LOved it.

I Finally feel it...The Weight of this Tag...The Glory of this Tag...from the moment I left the MTC Campus and arrived at the Utah Airport....I am NOW a Missionary.

I Met many wonderful people...and noticed a newfound power of speech...be it english or tagalog...

and a GREAT love such that i have never known before...for PEOPLE...regardless of who they are. TO think...jus to TALK to someone...oh how is it we do not see the significance and great growth and ability to change eachothers lives...just through a simple conversation...no matter where we are or who we are. How Beautiful!

The trip was wonderful, and we all finally split when we arrived ni Bacolod...my district...after spending a night together at the Mission Home. We were also told...as soon as we got in the Mission President's Car...just after i found such love to speak Tagalog...and several people telling me throughout my travel that i spoke quite well...that there are 5 languages we may be speaking here in this mission...any combination of them all...and none of them are tagalog!

oh boy! haha! soon (the next day) we congregated...only to separate...very quickly...into our appointed areas. And my new companion, an American frmo colorado, been about for a year, Elder Stockton...and we all quickly took our luggage to buses and left. I Felt It...time to begin.

i do not have time to explain the past four days...let me just say this.

It is marvelous here, mother. So beautiful. yes literally too...but the people. the spirit. so wonderful. yes...there is room for the spirit here. we must go forth.

so many differences...and things that might seem odd and out of place and perhaps before...i might have though so strange...but here...i look and puzzle at the thigns in curiosity for a second, then smile...and realize...its perfect. This is the Philippines.

And truly...in all i see mother...i feel that: so different...but perfect. This is the Philippines.

I've been on buses chock full...where i am nearly outside of the bus (no doors) my face and body in the wind...in little motor tricylces (that and buses are prevalent EVERYWHERE) (its how you get anywhere!) i sit or grasp on in quite excitement...there are wild dogs everywhere...little stores everywhere...rice fields! sugar cane fields! Beuatiful mountains and skies...house of bamboo...open...the people are so genuine...to talk...even if not interested...it truly is a marvelous place mother...the weather feels so natural to me.

Many people wonder if i am a filipino (not because of how i talk...im terrible...but how i look)

I need to learn Ilongo. That is language for this area in Bacolod North (Manapla and Caduta-in).

Yet...my gosh...i FEEL This.And i feel how great my need to learn this language...because my testimony is burning within me. And I want to share it...even all of it...with all these people.

I have no time, mother and father...family. I have none...my day is full...walking...teaching...and i do teach. Tagalog where i can...englsh a little here and there...ilongo i try...but i TEACH and bear my witness everywhere i can.

EVERY night mother...since ive been here...i come home EXHUASTED... totally exhausted and yet...i am so happy. i feel like i cannot do any more...yet i know...theres some more i can do. even a better way. and i will find it. but i know me and elder stockton are trying. and the lord as well. we are exhausted...yet the spirit is ever present as we study and work, all day...for these people. there is no time...nor should there be...save it be for them.

i am exhausteed mother. and thats how i know...the lord is real. my spirit is real. and i am doing the work. the one work. the greatest work. I am so happy. So happy Mother.

I feel i may have nothing left when i come home...and yes...in a way...i desire this...its only been 4 days or so...and i may have nothing left after 2 years.

may i be reborn again through God now...and again when i return, i pray.i know this is my purpose for being.i will give. all that i am. to know him. to be like him.

i love you all...my dear family. and all my friends too....
The Church at home. The church in all the world. All of Gods Children.
I Love you.

in the name of jesus christ...amen.

--Elder Christopher A. Lewis