Made it!

Guess who made it to the PHILIPPINES....oh ya look at him:)

look he even smiled:)

The mom got to talk to him at the airport and he was so excited and ready to go. He is so strong in all that he is doing. We also received a call from his mission president presidents wife telling us that he was safe and sound catching up on sleep before meeting his companion. Here's the letter we got from his first week at the Philippines.

Well we made it. The ride to Portland was about an hour, then from there it was a ten hour ride to Tokyo, I have some pictures of signs in Tokyo hope they sent. After an hour in Tokyo we got on our last ride to Manila, Four more hours and we were there. After getting bags we met President Tye and Sister Tye outside, we loaded are bags up and headed for the hotel where we would spend the night. All of the Elders rode with the Assistants in their van, the roads are the craziest thing, they all drive like I do, was a fun ride, motorcycles tricycles and jeepney's are all over the roads. I sent some pictures from inside the Hotel and from the window of the hotel.
The next morning it was back into the van and to the mission office where we meet are companions, Elder Villa is my companion he's from the Philippines, and lives further North on Luzon next to some Mango farms. He has two transfers left on his mission, so after the twelve weeks of training he's mission will be over. He's a great companion and knows a lot of english so we can usually understand each other.
The area we are in is very hilly, with a lot of houses and trees. Some areas have very nice houses but in others the houses are very small and the people very poor. Most of the area we are assigned to are very poor. There houses are made of what ever they can find. If it keeps the rain of they're happy. And when it rains hard.
We're in a new area so things are just getting started up. We taught a few lessons, but mostly we visited members and less actives, my Tagalog is good enough to bare my testimony or teach a little. The people are very friendy if your not comfortable when you sit down in there house you will be by the time you leave.
The first thing they'll ask you is where your from then how old you are. When we meet the branch president he joked that they would call me the young Joseph Smith, they all think I look very young. So every once in a while someone will call me the Young Joseph Smith, its pretty funny, I've felt very welcome from the time I've set foot here in the Philippines, the people are all very friendly, most of them can understand at least some English but its always better to learn tagalog, they've told us that we need to learn it, any free time we have I study it, I can put together sentances for lessons but my real goal is conversation, One thing thats different here is the culture the culture is different even in the way people speak, so to speak the language like a Filipino we have to learn whats normal for them, then use the language naturally.  Tagalog is easy, but culture and how the language is used will take a little more practice. I'm working hard, and plan on learning it as fast as possible, with the help of Elder Villa.
Some foods I"ve eaten, lets see..lots of rice. And pork, chicken, bread, had a couple different kinds of fruit, just Saturday we had some kind of Bannana soup, all of it is very good, I plan on getting some Ballut later this week, I'll let you know how it is. It's supoosed to be just like chicken noodle soup.
We're leaving in an apartment building that has two stories, we're on the top, there some sisters on the bottom, one of them got here with us and was in a different zone in the MTC she is also getting trained, the Presdent said that the Cavite mission has 131 missionaries right now but by the end of the year there will be about 200, so its possible that the misisonaries being trained now could be trainers after the twelve weeks. I love here, the people help you feel very welcome, they are very honest about everything, they'll tell you what they think, bu there also very kind.
The streets here are very confusing, its hard for us to remember exactly were we are, a lot of members having been showing us around which has helped, with out them we would have no idea were anything is.
The Filipino's love cariokee and basketball, we can almost always here someone singing as we walk the streets, and there are a lot of courts, one of this days elder Villa and  will go play a game at one of the courts. Another question people ask is do you play basketball, its a different being the tallest person on the streets but I like it.
To send email we go to a little building, you pay three pisos and then you have the computer for as long as you want. Everything costs very little here compared to America. A trike ride is about 10-20 piso, and a jeepney ride is about the same.
Almost every day we come home from teaching there are aunts on the floor, if you leave food out for a second they'll get it, so one day Elder Villa grabbed a piece of paper, lit it on the stove, tossed it on the ground, grabbed my handsanitizer and set them on fire. One of the coolest things I've seen here. He's says they've done it to roaches and spiders to.
Sorry about the spelling I'm in a hurry, thats all for now.
Elder Creager

...the Young Joseph Smith! I think that fits him pretty well:)

I love this kid!