The Rain in Spain falls mainly on the Philippines?

Mother, I appreciate the address for Shane. I was actually looking through the letters I have to write (now a very backed up qeue) and saw the returned one from about 7 months ago. And then I sighed with regret because the pictures, topics, and questions were all outdated and yet I still had no idea how to get it to him. So I’ll get that one sent. With a current events stickynote on the top.Speaking of current events…. We were mentioned in Conference!!!! Yeah. It wasn’t bad at all. We just trudged through impromptu rivers all day Thursday and finally got power back on. It was actually pretty fun at first, but you can only sing the one line of “singing in the rain” that you can still remember so many times before it gets a little old. Then your companion tells you about a friend who suddenly died one day because she had fed chickens and the feces got into an open wound in her foot. Then you think about the cuts you just got yesterday on your feet and the fact that the now submerged bridge two branches wide without handholds you are crossing used to have a couple pig pens next to it and you wonder what besides water is rushing past your feet. You would also figure people would have pity on us and let us in. The effect was opposite, as now they didn’t even want to come out and tell us to go away. They just kind of waved from the doorway. So when we got home my companion cooked us a big pot of sopas (soup for those of you who don’t speak Tagalog) which is an ethnic dish here in the Philippines, faithfully cooked from Filipino generation to Filipino generation since it was ethnically imposed into Filipino culture by the Spanish Rulers.Also, I had a good talk with the Pratts, senior couple here in Roxas Zone. After several corrections to call him Elder, and not sir, he suggested that I look into sorbathane inserts. I don’t know what they are, but they sound like a good idea. As well as cookie dough and apple cinnamon poptarts. Also I am supposed to ask you if you know brother John Erickson, their son in law that is studying at Memphis for optometry. Apparently he served in Baguio and is fluent in Illokano. So if you meet him tell him: napintas ti balasang ditoy. That’s if he looks like a fun guy. If he looks a little more serious tell him to lighten up, and then tell him that the girls here are pretty(see translation above).So I had a great time at General Conference. It was great. I especially liked Elder Hollands talk. (I originally had his whole name, but wasn’t sure of the spelling [two f’s or one?] and decided that wouldn’t be very missionary like if I spelled it wrong). But I know that everyone probably had that as their favorite, so I’ll choose another to be original.….…Ok, so I can’t get past it. That one really was my favorite. It was really great to hear so strongly seeing as we usually hear the opposite side just as strong. Also I can’t remember anyone else specifically by name. Yes, once again, not very missionary-like. But I really enjoyed the whole theme of being recognized as disciples by our love for others. I helped me think a lot. Also the parenting thing, because In my new responsibility I sometimes have to deal with child-like behavior. I’m trying to find a balance between the carrot and the stick. The thing is I don’t have that many carrots. Also, Filipino carrots are about the size of dad’s smoked weenies with barbeque sauce. So I don’t know how appealing that is. Also I liked the treatise on the attributes of the Godhead. Very smooth reasoning, flow, and presentation. I wish I was that good at explaining it.Also, I enjoy the fact that Filipinos are not shy about singing in public at all, especially if they’re watching music videos on the computer next to me while wearing headsets.I’m doing well with my companion, and his family owns an extremely cheap seaside hotel thing with free cooking for only 20 bucks a night. Possible vacation destinations…. I love you all. Take care. Also congratulations to Kyle Taylor on his mission call. He's grown up so fast. It seems like only a couple summers ago that we were hiding jugs of milk in bushes outside the primary room and seeing if we could get it to solidify over time.

The Latest from Bilbao

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I AM NOW LEGAL IN SPAIN!!!! I have for the last time(unless I go serve there) gone to the wonderful city of León and picked up my last residency card. No more will I be shackled by the chains of illegal residence and expired visas. I can now stay and live here for 3 more years if I wanted to. Feels good. That is one of the benefits of having a close relationship with your residency secretary....like being his companion. My card has been waiting at an office in León for 2 months but i haven´t been able to get there. A few missionaries went to try, but the people wouldn´t let them, even though they had a signed copy of my passport. So i finally got tired of waiting and I was like. Okay, Elder Strickland I´m going this Thursday to get it. And he was like, Alright. So wham! That´s that. It was a pretty good trip to. Right before i got on the 4 hour train ride we met some folk singers from California that are touring Spain and one lady grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana. She went to Captain Shreve high, so I was like, sweet. I am totally going to convert these people on the train ride. So I sit down in my seat and it is on the complete other end of the train than them. And I was getting ready to go over and sit in a seat by them, when i remembered that the train stops 1 hour into the trip and changes cars, where everybody gets out and stretches. So I was like, I will wait until then. Then a 32 year old spanish lady sat by me so I started talking to her and found out she just got married on Saturday. So I talked a lot with her then when we switched trains I talked to the folk singers. They really didn´t want to talk to me(I´m not taking it personally, it´s the badge) so I got back on the train and spent the next 3 hours talking to this spanish lady. She was really nice. It was cool, cause I could tell her a lot about myself and missionaries, but in a friendly way. It´s not like I just stopped her on the street and want a visit with her, but that I wanted to talk to her and create a friendship, then share what I knew with her. Because of who we are and what we are doing and how we dress, the topic will always eventually drift to the church. And so she started talking about bad stuff that happens in life and her friend who lost some children and I was able to then testify about the plan of Salvation. i didn´t teach the lesson, but as a friend, I let her know that there was a point to this life, that there is more than just working and living, and that knowing this purpose and being happy with it is only possible through following Heavenly Father. It was super tight. And super scary. i think i felt how Dad must feel a lot when he shares the gospel with everybody and i have to say, I give him major props. Especially knowing that it would be so easy if you weren´t a missionary to just let those opportunities go by. So she didn´t really want to talk to the missionaries or anything, but now she definately will know where to go that time in her life when she needs the gopsel. I had fun in León, cool visits, awesome elders there. Really good friends. Elder Nestvogel and I went and played basketball yesterday morning(I just shot around cause I knew he would cream me.) We started playing pig and then 3 cops come out of nowhere (7:30 in the morning and still dark) and two come from behind us. So we talk to them and they tell us it´s too early to be playing basketball and neighbors called to complain from the noise. So we tell them we´ll stop and they ask for our residency cards. I hadn´t brought mine so I told him and he looked really surprised and asked where I was from. So we told him, USA and Germany and he was like, oh. Then they let us go so we went home. But a Spanish Elder told us that it´s illegal to go somewhere without your residency card and he could have fined us a few hundred euros each for that. I thought it was stupid, but oh well. Weird laws in spain. The rest of the week has been pretty crazy. On Tuesday we got new missionaries and that was fun. They are excited. What else? I can´t really remember. I´m just having fun and this weekend is going to rock. And monday I will have to catch up from being out of the office for a few days : ( Alright. I hope you all have a great week and I love you all. General Conference was amazing. Study it. Especially Elder Scott´s first talk on following the spirit/receiving revelation. Good stuff. And halfway through he laid the ultimate smack down on pornography. They know what´s up, and exactly what we should avoid to be able to respond to the spirit. Well, i love you. -Elder Anderson