Kyle: Anyone for Mexico?

Just takin' a few pics after one of the firesides.
I love these people!

This is a boat down at the port of Cebu. You might have
heard about a passenger boat with like 800 people on it
that sunk in this last typhoon. Well, this is a boat from the same
company. The boat that sank was just a little bigger than this one.

Badminton is huge here. We went to this Badminton gym, yes that's right
a whole gym for Badminton, and played for a few hours. I was pretty much a
beginner compared to everyone else. Our Aspen Grove days didn't do it for me. I
held my own though.

That's called the Mayon Volcano behind me. It's very active
you can see the smoke coming off the top. It last erupted in 2006
and a bunch of people died. I want to come back here sometime and climb it.

Got a chance to go to the temple one morning. It was great!

Who wants to go to Mexico? Well, I think we’re going. I think. It’s been a wild couple of days for me. I thought I’d give you all an update. So I get home from the Philippines on July 17^th. I’ve loved my time here, but I am pretty excited to be home too. My plan has been to start work on September 2, the day after Labor Day. Well, I was waiting for American Express to get back to me to let me know what I’ll be doing for the next year. That’s how this rotation program works, we don’t know what we’re doing until the end of June each year. Well, the long awaited email came on Tuesday night. They told me they wanted me to come work sooner. Apparently the department I was being sent to had someone leave and is a bit shorthanded. Also, I found out that if I start before Aug. 10, less than one year after my internship ended, Amex would start matching my 401k contributions and include me in the profit sharing plan now as opposed to having to wait a year like everyone else. Well, as you all might know, I kind of want to spend some time with my family, see my Gma and Gpa in AZ, I have some vacations planned in July and August, and I might want to spend some time with a girl named Emily as well. So needless to say, I wasn’t thrilled with the news.

Since then, I talked to my future boss and I think we’ve worked some things out. It’s better than I had previously thought it was going to be. They would like me to start as soon as possible, but she was very kind and she understood that I had made plans. She wanted me to start sometime mid-August at latest so I could overlap with the person who is currently in my position. Well, I suggested that I start in Sep. but that I fly out to visit for a few days in late July or early August. I could spend some time with the current guy and then I could spend August getting up to speed on everything while not officially starting until September. She liked that idea and I’ll be flying out there the last week in July for a few days. I might go out one more time in August, but it looks like I’ll be able to wait until September to start so that’s great news! I will miss out on the extra bucks, but I think it’s totally worth it. So bring it on August!

As for me, and my life in the Philippines, it’s been an amazing experience. I’ve been here in Cebu for the last 4 days, but I spent the previous 2 weeks traveling throughout the Philippines. I went to a different city every day. I rode on buses, taxis, motorcycles, motor-tricycles, tricycles, planes, and I even walked a bit. No boats yet, but next week I have two boat trips. It was pretty tiring, but it was great. We had these meetings every night in the stake center of the town that we went to. We would tell them about the Entrepreneur Academy Awards, that’s the program that we’re putting on that has occupied the majority of my time here, and then I give a little seminar where I talk about saving and investments. It’s been such a great experience and I’ve met hundreds of the saints in this wonderful country. I’ve loved it. These people are so wonderful and inspiring. Their stories are amazing. I’m just so grateful I’ve had a chance to be a part of this.

As for the rest of my time here, I’m going to Cagayan de Oro on Saturday. Then I’ll be back here in Cebu for Sunday. On Monday I’m going on vacation. The guys at the Academy decided that after working every day of the past month except for one Saturday, it was time for me to take a vacation. I wasn’t going to argue. So anyway, on Monday and Tuesday I’m going to an island called Bohol. It’s close to here and I’ll just take like an hour boat ride. There are a lot of cool things to see and do there. If anyone is interested, I guess you could google Bohol, or not. Anyway, then on Thursday I take my last trip. We go to three different cities in three days on an island called Mindanao. It’s the southernmost island in the Philippines and there’s a lot of Muslims and terrorists there. So if you never hear from me, you’ll know what happened. Just kidding, I’ll be fine. Anyway, then I take a boat back and I’ll be here in Cebu from Sunday through Wednesday when I leave.

I love you all and can’t wait to see you in just two weeks!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you about Mexico. I think Emily and I are going to go to Mexico to take some toys, clothes, etc. to an orphanage and to work there for a couple of days. We'll probably drive down from Mesa and then back up to Havasupai. I think we'll leave Utah on July 30 and be back to Havasupai on Aug 6. Anyone is welcome to come to Mesa, or to Mexico, or both. Let me know if anyone is interested. Gma and Gpa, how do those dates work for the two of you? I can't wait to see you both!!!

-KP