Elder Parker Reber: Hello from MAKATI!

First off- Happy Birthday Dad!!! Thanks so much for the awesome example you are to me. You have no idea how great you are and how much you have influenced me in my life. Keep doing what your doing! I love you!!

So back to Makati.... Yep that's right haha I got transferred! Right in the middle of the transfer. After emailing last week I got a surprise text from President I'll be transferring Wednesday and will be trained by Elder Ahn to be an office elder. Never in my mission life would I have ever thought I'd be an office elder! But I'm already learning a ton so far and I know that there are experiences in the office and in our area that I need in my life.

So all of us elders were freaking out in Palawan haha. We hurried and went to the crocodile farm since it was my last P day in Palawan. Tuesday we taught lots of investigators and said a quick goodbye to some members. We taught one last lesson with David (from cali) and he shed a tear as i left for the last time. We had another lesson with an investigator we've had for awhile named Boy and we finally got him to agree to a baptism date! Wednesday morning we did some service. We had the sisters in my district take a little trike and the elders decided to jog up the mountain through the forest since there was nobody else to give us a ride. Haha I remember thinking wow i'm gonna miss running around in forests all day trying to share the happiness of the gospel to everyone possible. The hardest part about transferring though was we were having our first baptism as a companionship in that area Saturday! It was the first baptism in that area in a super long time! But I heard Liann was baptized and it all worked out well. I'm just so happy she was baptized and it's not really a big deal i wasn't able to make it:)

Flying back to the Manila area was super weird! I was all ALONE! It was the first time I've been alone like that since July of last year haha. I talked to a cool soldier guy though as we waited to get on the plane and tried to talk to a business lady while flying. Right before I got on the plane though I stood up and saw a guy and his wife wearing BYU shirts! It was super weird! Apparently they were visiting his mission areas again in a different mission in the Philippines then decided to go to Palawan to end the trip on a good note.

My new companions are Elder Ahn (Lone Peak) and Elder Webster (Box Elder) - my first american companions. Elder Ahn is training me to take his place and I'll be companions with Elder Webster. They're both super fun! Elder Ahn is super pro at piano and violin so we might try to do a song together sometime. Elder Webster has been in the office since his training and is the smartest kid i've ever met haha. Our office is in Buendia which is like in the city! Everything is super rich and we have tons of crazy good food options. Our area itself is a little outside of the city but we spend most of our time walking next to hotels and malls haha. We even own a car!! I drove for the first time in months Wednesday night and I felt like a 16 year old! I totally popped a curb it was sick. We had to go on an "emergency mattress run" which was super crazy haha. We got home late and every morning for the most part we actually have to wake up at 5:30. We're super busy but it has been really fun.

Thursday night I got to meet lots of the ward. We had a big ward party where we ate and played ping pong. We could only be there for 30 minutes but it was fun to meet the ward. I'm in the Makati 2nd ward and they're super strong. Our ward mission leader is a stud! My companion Elder Ahn is Korean so of course he's a pro at ping pong. All the filipinos kept yelling "Korean hit!!" every time he had a crazy spinning shot. With their accents it sounds like )Ko ree ahn Heeet!) Haha it was super funny to watch that. Speaking of the good ward, we had dinner on Saturday night at the Pimentel house and they're know throughout the mission for being the family that serves the BIGGEST DINNERS EVER to the missionaries haha. Literally I was in shock walking in and seeing all the food on the table. It was all for us too. The funny thing too is that they literally won't let you stop eating. The wife just stands behind you and every time i took a sip of my juice she would grab my cup and fill it back up to the brim. Literally the nicest family. They have two kids and one is serving a mission right now so they love to talk about him. People in the PHilippines are the best honestly. We didn't even eat until dinner yesterday.

I left early before my last area's baptism but this area actually had a baptism too for Albert! It was the first baptism Elder Webster has had in his 17 month mission and the first one in this area for a while. We normally have to work in the office doing tons of stuff until 4 so it's has been hard to get baptisms in this area I guess. It makes me really motivated to do all we can to get out of the office so we can go find those who are ready! We have another really nice Nanay who's been to church twice now and might be baptized too! Apparently they've only taught her twice but she seems pretty great to me so far. Yesterday she told me "here at your church is the only place where my heart cries!" Haha funny way of saying it but it was awesome to hear!

At first I was wondering a little why I had to leave my last area so fast but I know there's a reason I'm coming here to be an office Elder. I got to have an interview with President and he said he had the same calling as me when he was a missionary! He said it's really blessed him and that I need to remember I'm still doing lots of good things- even if the work is a little different now. I'm excited to work with President Ostler more. I've talked and interacted with him more this week than what would normally happen in a few months! It's been a blessing to see how awesome he really is- I know i'll learn a ton from him. He will be leaving in June and I'll get to see the new president come in too! Should be good stuff.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Reber

**We were so excited to finally receive pictures from Park. Sorry/not sorry for the overload