Words from Elder Ryder Nielsen in the Phillippines

"Things are going well, i have settled down pretty nice in my new area of Makati. My companion is Elder Clarito a Filipino from Mindanao Cotabato. His native language is Tagalog which was very surprising to me because that is the first Filipino companion I have had whose native language is Tagalog. It is very apparent when he speaks, he speaks very pure tagalog. I thought this would be a great time for me to master the language having some one who truly understands the language but not so. One of the first thing Elder Clarito told me is that he does not want me to speak to him in Tagalog at all only in English. I wanted to protest but i humbly submitted to his request. He wants to learn English well before he returns home. So we have been speaking English together but of coarse we still teach and preach in Tagalog. My new area is very strange. One part is nothing but poor people struggling to live each day and then the other part is RICH beyond RICH. The rich part is called Global City. When you enter global city it is as if you left the Philippines and have arrived back into America. We are doing well together. As far as the Typhoon goes, you think it would be a big deal here but the fact that the Philippines gets hit with 10 to 20 typhoons every year honestly it hardly affects anyone. Its kind of a "been there done" that kind of attitude and i believe that is why many people died in Tacloban because they had never experienced a storm that strong. The Typhoon hit us at 10 a.m. on Wednesday but we received notice from our mission President Tuesday morning. We were told to cancel all our appointments for that evening and be home in our apartments by 6 pm. So even though the typhoon didn't hit till the following day we were confined to our apartments Tuesday night until Wednesday afternoon. The winds were very strong but like i said people here don't take it that serious. We looked out our window and saw many people walking around in the storm! Some riding their bikes, motorcycles, and cars as well. So we have not been doing any service really because no one was affected badly. We are all safe and sound. The Church will always play on the safe side. Sounds like things are going pretty well back home. I recieved the package and yes i did share the socks. I got to run mom i love you take care!"