Banaue Rice Terraces

Pretty great week this week! The last week of my first transfer! How crazy is that?! One elder in my district is training this next transfer so I'm excited since I won't be the new guy anymore. We will meet him on Thursday morning at district meeting. Funny to read Sam's emails and compare it to what we did in the MTC. A lot of it is the same. We spent a lot of time in the piano room listening to one Elder practice as we studied. I can't believe it has already been a month since you entered the MTC! Time flies by!

 I don't have my calendar with me so I can't remember what I did each day of the week. We had zone conference on Thursday which was awesome! Learned a lot and met some new missionaries from the Solano zone. Learned a lot of great lessons on our language study, obedience, and how to find people to teach. Also got recognized for my birthday, even though I wasn't even a missionary yet, so I got a cool temple recommend holder. Today was Banaue day (rice terraces)! We went to Jollibee to eat breakfast early this morning at 3:00am then left from the church at 4:00am. Since the whole zone can't fit inside the jeepney some people had to ride on top which was a ton of fun.....for the beginning at least. It was cool looking at the stars as we drove down the road but the top was very uncomfortable. It took around 3 and a half hours to get there. View was awesome but Elder Brandon and I didn't waste any time before we started our hike. We walked so much since it was both of our first times going. Pretty great day! Because of Banaue I don't have very much time to email so it is a short one this week but it was a good week! Love you all!
 Love Elder Haacke
 
About the Banaue Rice Terraces (Below Pictures):
The Banaue Rice Terraces (Filipino: Hagdan-hagdang Palayan ng Banawe) are 2,000-year-old terraces that were carved into the mountains of Ifugao in the Philippines by ancestors of the indigenous people. The Rice Terraces are commonly referred to by Filipinos as the "Eighth Wonder of the World".  It is commonly thought that the terraces were built with minimal equipment, largely by hand. The terraces are located approximately 5000 ft above sea level. They are fed by an ancient irrigation system from the rainforests above the terraces. It is said that if the steps were put end to end, it would encircle half the globe.  Locals to this day still plant rice and vegetables on the terraces.