Smokey Mountain

hey!

Happy father’s day yesterday to all the dads!! I love my dad. I’m really thankful for you dad and all you do for our family. Hopefully you got to go play some golf or drill some really nice teeth or something fun this week. You and mom are the most selfless people I know.

This week was transfer week! Ah it’s always so crazy but we survived. Lots of funny adventures. We had a really good batch of missionaries head home so it was kinda sad seeing them leave. Two of them were in the office in the past and we pranked them with mayonnaise as we said our last good byes. There’s a little spot next to the office that gives you “real mayonnaise” with your hot dog but nobody puts it on so the stash just builds up over time. It’s a long time office joke hiding it in suitcases, stitching it into pants, etc. We totally “naized” them real good this week!

Transfer day was a pretty normal transfer day. We got up at 4:30 and picked up new missionaries. Eventually that day we had to make our way to the city of manila to help situate some mattresses in some apartments. Traffic was pretty bad but we enjoyed blasting “The Lamb of God” as always J That night we had lots of extra missionaries in the house and I was up all night because it was sooo hot and I gave my fan away haha. Luckily I have a crazy itch right now on my arms and neck so that helped me sleep lots better. J

We got to the area a few times but not much has changed there. The best thing there was learning Eric hasn’t had a drink for 13 days! He actually got super sick though later on in the week and he jokingly says it’s because he doesn’t have his alcohol. We won’t be able to teach him until hopefully this Thursday so we’ll see if he’s still staying strong with word of wisdom!

We met a guy from South Africa coming back from the Area Office! I haven’t seen a sweet black guy with dreads and headphones for the longest time haha! I also haven’t started meeting someone by saying “what’s up!?” for awhile either. I had to talk to him. He took off his headphones with a huge smile and we talked for awhile on the side of the street. I told him I did my 6^th grade country project on South Africa and he thought that was super cool. He was just soo nice. We found out his sister in South Africa is actually a Latter Day Saint and we invited him to go to the international ward. Also we met a random guy from Utah! He wanted to buy us dinner but we had just eaten!

P day we had one of my favorite activities in my mission! We met with the assistants and started off the day eating Mang Inasal for breakfast. My rice game is still strong even though we don’t eat it quite as much in this area. After that we hopped in the car and headed across the mission to TONDO! We went to a spot right outside of my first area called Smokey Mountain. It’s basically a HUGE mountain that is actually a trash pile. Over time the trash has decomposed and over time grass and trees have started growing on it. Now it actually just looks like a mountain with lots of trash under the layer of dirt but it’s crazy to think that trash was piled up to make a mountain that big. After that we walked through Happyland in my first area because it’s the craziest spot in our mission and the assistants wanted to check it out haha. We actually found a less active there and referred her to missionaries there. After that we returned to the office and went to Burger King. It was a great day!!

On Sunday we pulled the classic nightmare of every missionary and forgot to have food prepared to cook on Sunday. All we ate were snacks but luckily we found pancake mix in the cupboard so we cooked up pancakes in our rice cooker haha! Funny times.

I love being a missionary. There was a great talk in sacrament about how you spend your time determines the type of person you become. If you want to be good at basketball, then you should be playing every day. The stake young men’s president then went on to remind us of the importance of making sure we’re choosing to give enough time to scriptures and service. Doing things like those will make us become more Christlike and happier in our lives. The earlier you start, the better!

Have a great week!

love elder Reber

Not sure what this pose is, but apparently it is a "thing"

Just another chef moment

On the way to Tondo and Smokey Mountain

I found this pic online. It is amazing to imagine this mountain is made up of trash!

View on Smokey Mountain

A friend from high school got to go pick her Elder up from Parkers mission. So fun to receive this pic from her. Great job Elder Roberts-we will miss your letters! Thanks for the great pic Brenda!