Welcome to the Philippines!

We woke up this morning to our first email from Elder Joe in the Philippines!

Dear family and friends,
I finally made it to the Philippines! I am currently sitting in an internet cafe in Tarlac City. The Philippines are AWESOME!. I am Sooo excited to be here. So I'll try to tell you about my travels here and about a couple experiences I have had. So the flight from San Francisco to Manila was long and I slept almost the entire time. However I was able to give away two BOM to some Pilipino on our flight. From Hong Kong we flew to Manila. On that flight I was sitting next to an old nanay, who was very very kind. So we finally arrived to the Manila airport on Wednesday morning. The missionaries going to Angeles put our luggage in one van and all packed into another. We were picked up by some members from Angeles City. On our way to the mission home we stopped by Burger King which was number one! The roads in the Philippines are crazy!!! There really are no rules. Cars, trikes, people, cars, Jeepneys all share the road and it's pretty amazing how there isn't an accident every 2 seconds! We finally arrived at the mission home in the afternoon and we met President and Sister Puzey. They are amazing and so kind. we spent the night at mission home and went through some mission orientation. On Thursday at 12 our trainers came to the mission home to pick us up. My trainer is Elder Pioquinto from someplace in the Bacolod mission. He is awesome! I am very lucky to have him as my trainer. We then headed out to our area. Our area is called Burgos. As President Puzey says we are "out in the wilderness." Our area is a very humble place. I am out in the fields with the carribou(however you spell it). To get to our area we took a bus for an hour and a half, followed by a ride on a trike then we took a Jeep for 50 minutes to our apartment. Our area is very big. Our apartment is in the middle of our area and most of our investigators are a 50 minute walk in either direction. Most of the people in our area are very poor and humble. It's been very humbling to walk into their small houses made of bamboo or cement and see how empty they are and realize that you are looking at all their belongings. Many people here have hardly anything. However they are so friendly and so kind. The people here are amazing. Right now we are teaching about 5 lessons a day to investigators and a few recent converts. We stay pretty busy.
Going to church on Sunday was a powerful experience. It was powerful to see these humble people come to church in whatever way they good, in the nicest clothes they could(many in jeans and a polo) to worship the lord. We had 66 people at church which is above average in our branch. On of my favorite parts of church was feeling the spirit as we sang hymns. Many of the words were sang wrong and there were many pitches at times but the spirit was very powerful. Speaking of hymns I am now the branch pianist. If that isn't a scary thought I don't know what is. Oh yeah and I play on a keyboard which is pretty great. One of the most difficult things here with our investigators is getting them to come to church. It's not because they lack desire. It's because of distance and a lack of transportation. This has made me realize how blessed I have been to be in a place with church so accessible to me.
So the food so far in the Philippines has been masarap! My companion is a good cook and he is teaching me the ways of cooking Filipino food. The mangoes here are the best! Since my area is far away from the city we have to do most of our shopping on p-day. On p-day we come into Tarlac (which is the name of our zone) and we either to district development meeting or do a zone activity. Today we played basketball and some other game I don't know the name of. After that we made mango banana shakes at the zone leader's apartment. Our zone is currently the biggest in the mission with 24 or 22 missionaries. There is one sister from my batch in my zone so it was nice to see a familiar face today. After our activity we went to the SM. Yes we have an SM in our zone which is great! An SM is a huge mall with most things you could want in it. We ate at pizza hut which was great!
So far I have had some moments when I have felt very overwhelmed whether it is with the language, with being in a new place where nothing is familiar or just the fact that I am now really a missionary. However they don't last long and I have learned that I just need to focus on the work and stop thinking about myself. I am so blessed to be here in the Philippines. I am so thankful for this opportunity I have to serve the lord. I really do love it here – even the cold showers that sure wake you up in the morning!
Next week I'll send some pictures of my area, companion and apartment.
Love,
Elder Leishman