Alright I've got a few stories to tell that are pretty cool. Right after you dropped me off here I was walking with my host along the sidewalk with my bags and the first person I saw was Thomas! I mean Elder Day. He was saying goodbye to his family. So Elder Day and me went through the lines and got our missionary badges and cards together. Then after that my host took me to my room where we met our companions and room mates, they are all great elders and we're already becoming good friends as I told you Elder Johnston is my companion he's from Bowsman Montana and we've been friends from the beginning. The other set of Elders rooming with us are all form Utah, who could of guessed that? About a half hour after getting here they threw all of us straight into class, where our Teacher Sister Scotts spoke one hundred percent Tagalog the entire rime, so we couldn't understand a thing. It was really tough. But is the best way to learn.
One cool thing about our branch is that there are six Elders and Six Sisters in it. The Elders and I love the sisters because there so good at the language. We always go to them for help with the language and pronouncing words, a few of them learned a lot of it before they came here so we could say that they know a lot more than us. All of the Elders in are res. our going to the Same mission Cavite, this means that we'll probably be future Mga Kasama (companions) and it is basically a known that we'll fly out together, which is great. I found out that we leave form the MTC on September 23 not September 25.
Later on in the day we met our zone leaders and had a branch conference where we met the branch presidency. At this meeting district leaders were going to be assigned. Elder Johnston and I didn't know that we were supposed to where are suits to the meeting. So right as we walked in the door the branch president sent us back to get them. We joked on the way back that because we forgot our suits we were probably ruled out as district leaders. We were right! The Elder assigned as our District Leader was Elder Burbidge and he's the right Elder for the job.
The great thing about the MTC is that every day gets better than the last. The first two days here were definitely the hardest and longest. It's hard to know exactly what to tell you because every day is full of classes and study, and the language just fries your brain. So much memorization and study and repetition. We have learned how to bare are testimonies and pray in Tagalog. and we have basic greetings down. To me the language is one of my favorite parts of the MTC learning new words and being able to say new things is fun, and it makes me feel Masaya (happy). We gave our first lesson in Tagalog yesterday to an "Investigator" who is really an R.M. who works here. We taught about prayers and faith, and had him read a few scriptures like Alma 22:16, we struggled with the langauge and had to have a script for most of what we said, but overall I believe we did the bests we could, with what we knew at the time. We paid attention to his needs and helping him. It was one of my favorite experiences so far and we'll continue to have more and more of them.
I hope that I can help you understand whats going on here and how I feel, but its a feeling and expierence that no one can understand fully unless they've been here. This is honestly the happiest place in the world. No one can keep from feeling happy especially after the first few days have passed and you've settled in. Even though this expeirence is hard to relate to you I"ll do my best to help you share in this experience. Last night I was thinking about how I've felt just in the past few days of being here. I can honestly say that I wish the rest of my entire life could be spent as a servant of our Heavenly Father and sharing his gospel. This is the greatest most Totoo (true) message you could ever share with anyone. So through out the next weeks each time I write I"ve decided to share what I see to be the most important experiences I've had at he MTC feel free to ask question about what its like here, or about anything I would love to answer them. If Ashley, or Andy or Amy or any of you has a question please ask.
The book store has anything and everything you could possibly need. You know how I didn't bring any hangers. We'll I looked in the closet expecting there to be hangers there but.. there weren't! I thought this is going to be a long six week, but I was saved by the bookstore and got a handful of hangers for like 90 cents. Here at the MTC we have cards that you use to get into the the residence building or classrooms, and to eat. The greatest thing about his card is that the Training Center puts six dollars a week on the card, so the hangers cost me nothing. But if the six dollars isn't spent it keeps building on your card every week. A lot of the districts save up there card money and then buy snacks from the Book store to have a party. That's on our plan of things to do.
One exciting thing here is flight plans, a flight plan tells you of course where you'll fly from and what countries you'll go to, and who you'll fly with when you take off for your country. Elder Johnston and I have seen people opening them, to me it's like a mini mission call, everyone is so excited when they see where they get to fly to and the friends they get to ride with its awesome. We won't get those for at least a few weeks.
The food here is like eating at a restaurant for every meal. The burgers here are the best you can't beat them, and I tried Bryson's Cookies and Cream milk it's fantastic. So know that I am being fed well.
Also make sure Amy knows that I got here letter, tell her thanks! Yesterday I met some one else I know from highschool Elder Hughes. We talked for a bit.
Doesn't he sound great? We love that kid. This cute girl told him that she would be writing him in Tagalog (by using her dictionary given to her by her big brother) on one side of the letter and in English the other side. Pretty soon I think he wont need that English translation at all. Keep going little brother!
