Merry Christmas!

Even though there is no snow and stuff over here it still feels a lot like Christmas!

So I'll tell ya'll a little bit about what it's like over here Christmas time!

• So kids go door to door basically caroling and they have little tin cans because after they sing they expect you to pay them money. When we were at our apartment and they came by we turned off the lights and hid because they weren't going to leave unless you pay them!
• There of course is no pine trees here so what every neighborhood does is they make a Christmas tree for their neighborhood out of trash/bottles/basically whatever they can find! I am going to try and get a picture of it this week.
• Everyone asks you to give them presents. 
• Christmas music is blasting everywhere! There is no rules about how loud peoples music can be so yeah.

This week was great though! We had to spend the first couple days searching for our investigator because she wasn't at her house and she wasn't texting us back. So one afternoon we both had the impression to go to her house even though it is an hour walk and it was pouring rain. We made it to her house and she wasn't home. But we were able to find out that she was coming home that night and she had just been really busy at school with a dance and Christmas parties and stuff. We got her already to go for her interview and then the next day we did the exact same thing and hiked up to her house through the mud and rain but this time WITH our district leader haha

So Rodel.. our gay investigator he opened up even more to us this week about his boyfriend... Basically this means that he needs to be interviewed by President. But everything is still looking good for his baptism this Christmas. We just have to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid before that. (last night he was at a Gay pageant.. I guess he won it last year so he had to turn over the crown to the new winner... oh Philippines...)

The Baptism was great! It was the same day as Elder Nonato's Birthday and the Ward Christmas party, so there was a lot of support from the ward. April was her name and her brother who is about to go on a mission was the one who baptized her. For me that is so much better when other members like close friends or family are the ones that baptize them!

We had to do last minute exchanges yesterday so that we could get some interviews done for some District Leaders. So I got to go with Elder Benedict (from Layton) again and we went way up into the mountains and they had a awesome group there of about 30 people and it was just something new that was really cool.

I'm really excited for this Christmas because Tatay Matulac (the matulac father) is going to be baptized! Nothing feels better than completing families! And it's always nice to be able to baptize a Dad or someone who can receive the priesthood. Because that has been one of the hardest things in this area getting males to listen to us.

So because the year is winding down I just wanted to let all of you know how much I appreciate all the support and love. It's not easy but this has been the best experience of my life. I hope all of you have a great Christmas and I'll let you know next week where my new area is!

Love,
Elder Warnick

Elder Nonato, April's brother, April (her baptism day), Elder Warnick