Oh my goodness, I miss you guys so much. The past week was a little hard for me since I wasn't able to send a proper email at the MTC and I missed everyone like crazy. I thought they said we had time to email again at the MTC but we ended up not having time. So sorry about that. The Manila Temple was also closed so we weren't able to do a session or meet sister Barba from Hawaii. Two elders met her in the grocery store though, but I wasn't there to meet here. But I'm glad you received the pictures from Pres. Rahlf so you knew we arrived in Cauayan safely!
The first thing that Pres. Rahlf said to me when we met them at the airport was "Aloha!" so I immediately knew he was going to be a great President haha. He knew everyone's names and where they're from before we arrived. We go back to the mission home in a few weeks to do another kind of orientation thing. I can't wait to see everyone from my batch again. I wish my whole district was in Cauayan, but half are in Urdaneta. Anyway, so my companion! elder Rebojo is super super cool. He's a great missionary and example for me to follow. His English is also good enough to communicate pretty easily so that's awesome haha. He was also a breakdancer back in highschool too! So sick. When they read out the companionships I was hoping I'd get paired up with another elder from Hawaii - Elder Medeiros from Kona side - but I'm glad I was paired with Eder Rebojo now. And that's funny what Aunty Roxy said about our dimples, haha. I don't have any nicknames here yet besides the occasional Elder Mitsubishi haha. The first questions I get when I say my name are always: Where are you from? Half Japanese? Do you speak Japanese? So if Ohu wants to make people proud, learn some Japanese haha. Sorry if there are typos by the way, this keyboard isn't that good. Oh I also met Elder Brandon at the mission home! The Iurika's family that sent me malasadas told him to find me and give me a big hug, so he did haha.
Man, it's beauuutiful here. Sobrang maganda. The people are so nice too! They're so humble and willing to listen to our messages, even when they're of a different faith or something like that. The food is so masarap (ono) too. I looove lumpia. I have to confess though, I've already drank more coca cola than I ever did before my mission haha. A lot of the time that's just all they have. But when water or something without caffeine is an option I still prefer those. And yup, it's pretty much the way it looks haha. The car lanes don't really apply here. But the people are really good drivers. you should've seen the traffic in Manila! The cars get sooo close to each other and people cross or walk through the street wherever they want. It's pretty nuts. I'll try to send as many pictures as I can after this email.
As for the box of things, most of it was from my MTC card and missionaries get a discount on everything, so I ended up only paying like 5-10 bucks of my own money :) I'm gad they got to you guys safely though. tel Hali'a I have her letter hanging on my mirror so I see it every day.
I can't believe I'm actually here either. It's such a sad thought that I won't see everyone for so long, but I'm also very excited to be here and I'm loving the people already. Today has been good so far. We woke up at 4:30 to run over to the zone leaders' apartment (ike 9 kilometers from us) and then played basketball at the chapel. Then we had a service project which was helping someone build a house. We weren't able to finish since we had to come back and email and do other things, so I'm hoping we can go back tomorrow or something. Random fun fact: you know how we have black outs in Hawaii? In the Philippines they call it brown outs haha. We had a brown out yesterday. But by the time we woke up, everything was working again. Luckily the water still runs during brown outs so I was still able to bucket shower haha. Those are fun.
Anywayyy, I think that's about it! I miss you guys soooo much. And I hope you're doing okay, mom. How's your health and everything? I pray that you and everyone remains healthy and strong while I'm gone. I love you guys! I can't wait for your letters! How much did it cost to send?
Mahal kita
Elder Ishibashi
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