The Philippines! (and Ted Mosby)

Alright! I finally made it to the Philippines! Holy Moly!! 26 ours of travel total!! that is counting lay overs and car rides!! I was so jet lagged haha! It was a miracle I am alive I swear!! Anyways we left Tuesday and got here Thursday When we got here they lost my bag... I was super stressed haha! But we finally made our way and went to the presidents house! Wow presidents of the church have nice things haha! His house was super nice and we had this way good Ulam... which is what all the food here is called. It basically means thing you put on rice! Anyways after we met our trainers. My trainer is Elder Hibbert. He is your classic white Idaho man. haha He is great though and he has been towing me around everywhere helping me out. it is good though because he lets me suffer and learn things on my own as well as trying to help me. Well here is the run down on the Philippines. It is Hot. it smells like ... an assortment of EVERYTHING, it is super poor. I live in what people tell me is the nicest area and people here are wealthier... It is still poor as crap! haha There are stray dogs and cats everywhere. I don't know how people survive! Haha anyways though It is weird. Going to the bathroom was way more different than I expected... I don't like it. Wiping with hands and nonsense. But cool story for the week. On my way to the Philippines! I met the actor of TED MOZBY!! my favorite TV show!! He was on his way home from the sun...something festival haha and he was on my flight! DANG!! I WAS SO EXCITED!! I had to take a picture with him. So i asked him after he got off the phone and he was pretty grumpy... he didn't really like the fact that I called him Ted Mozby haha But I got the picture.... than my sd card for some reason erased it... so I cant show anyone but it happened I swear!! Anyways back to the Philippines! I am doing well.. I was so jet lagged I barely remember anything! But all I know is that most people could care less about us. But the ones who do care .. are seriously prepared! They believe everything we say and they love the gospel. The people are so humble though and if you saw how poor it is here you would request that Oprah start a fundraiser. They are still happy though! they are always laughing and joking around. My first area is called Ampid. We it is supposedly the wealthiest. But is also... poor we proselyte in a squatters area and they have nothing... but they are still happy! haha I love this place... but my body hates it! So It is going to take some time to get used too. I don't understand anything but I know God will give it to me in my own time. Miracle of the week!! It was super sunny all day my second day and I swear I was going to die because of jet lag! I prayed so hard for some sort of relief because I didn't think I was going to make it! MIRACLE! Clouds rolled in out of no where and made the day really nice and cool!! I am so Thankful Heavenly Father looks out for me! Well anyways more stories ahead! The important thing is I'm safe and I haven't died playing frogger across the road!

Goodbye MTC!

Well it has been a long 10 weeks, but I finally did it! I made it out of the MTC alive! haha wow though this week has been a blur. We have been so focused on leaving I don't really remember what happened. I just know that we have been working hard and trying to stay focused but the excitement is almost tangible. Today I leave for the Philippines and I don't know what it is going to be like. I am kind of nervous, but nothing can hold me back now. I can't believe it though. Well this week went on as usual as it could but like I said last week we had some special guests appear in our class. Tuesday though was an awesome P-day! That night after I sent my last blog entry, Jeffrey R. Holland came to speak to us again! I have seen that Elder TWICE here in the MTC! Man he is so cool! He basically gave his usual speech about how nobody loved their mission more than him and we need to find that passion for the work because he says "This is Real Life" dont think you are going to serve for two years and just come home to your normal life. Nothing is greater that God's work. He also said he and President Gordon B. Hinkley could not bare to live, seeing return missionaries come home and become inactive. He said, "You missed the point" you cannot go on a two year mission and come back without converting yourself or you missed the point of your mission. haha He than said that you would regret meeting him in a dark alley if you came back home from your mission with tattoos and a pony tail or something. haha I love the apostles I really understand now that they are called of God and Jeffrey R. Holland is just the man! Than Last wednesday the newly called MTC president for the Philippines stopped by our class and taught us a lesson to help his wife and him prepare and train. His wife gave a brief lesson and what she said really touched my heart. She asked, "what is God's greatest sign of love?" I for some reason thought of a hundred different things thinking this question has so much about it and all the different blessings he has given us. The answer though suprised me because of it's simplicity, she said "Jesus Christ, his Son." I kind of had a humbling moment about how simple the gospel is and like how Nephi says, "I glory in Plainess." It definitely was a good experience to have that click in my head ... maybe a little later than hoped for but, That is a very important truth I think we should all know. Anyways afterwards The president, who's name I cannot remember, gave us a discussion about the Doctrine of Christ. Wow though, this guy used to be a big time lawyer and also I guess he trained the coast guards or something so he would shoot questions at us like gun fire. Wow I couldn't answer a single one of them because before I or anyone in my district could say anything, he would ask another one! But eventually his discussion lead to this, The doctrine of Christ consists of: Faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost. Through that we build our temple is what he said. It basically meant, that is what we need to do to work towards temple covenants. After temple covenants we stay on that strait and narrow path and endure to the end. It was very good and he explained it way better than what I just wrote. But ... yeah I can't post the picture he drew either so haha SORRY! Anyways the next day was kind of stressful because the ambassdor of the Philippines for the U.N. and Richard G. Hinkley was supposed to come to our class. When they showed up only the Ambassador and his wife showed up. i was a little sad that Ricahrd G. Hinkley didn't come but that is ok because the Ambassador was such a funny man. He was like 5 foot 3 and he was kind of blunt. Haha I guess that is the culture there, reminds me of my parents. Anyways he told us as Long as we are honest and ourselves, the filipino's would love us! He didn't even know Tagalog that well though haha he spoke a different dialect. Anyways it was way cool to see him and an honor. I can't wait to meet TONS OF FILIPINOS SOON! Well Monday night was emotional for me. I said goodbye to a lot of my good friends, some of my future best friends probably. We are leaving a day later so I said goodbye to my whole zone except 8 of us in our district. It was harder than I thought to say goodbye to them. I served for 10 weeks with the Elders who were a major role in my conversion and now they are gone. I hope we stay in touch! But I love this work and I will sacrifice my time with those people so that people can be as happy as I am knowing that God is our Heavenly Father, Jesus is the son of God and our Redeemer. Also I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I can't wait to give that challenge to people so they can come to know for themselves the things I know are true. Well this is my last entry in the MTC! THE END MTC!!

Last MTC Week!

Well the MTC is slowly coming to a close!! I have exactly a week from today until I leave for the Philippines! I got my flight plans this week! January 22nd at 5:30 I will be on a shuttle bus on my way to SALT LAKE INTERNATIONAL!! I can't WAITTT!!! haha I seriously have never been this excited it is like CHRISTMAS!! at the same time though holy cow I am about to leave on a plane to a third world country where everyone is living in mounds of garbage ... I like me the sound of that!! Yeah well i guess from the stories I have heard ... I am going to really smell what gross is. But I can just see those people smiling when they see me and I can't wait to see how clean they seem after they recieve baptism! Man who cares what smells bad when you can become clean from within! Right? Anyways this week is going to be crazy!! There is a lot of stuff going on in my district. So a new MTC president is called and we don't know if we will meet him tonight at devotional or later. Our class this Wednesday thought gets to meet with him and he is going to practice being a good president by teaching us something. So I mean pretty exciting right? WRONG!!! because the next day, the ambassador of the Philippines for the United Nations is coming to sit in one of our classes... WHAT!!! Crazy that guy is some big shot from the Philippines haha! Anyways that is not even the cool part. Elder Richard G. Hinkley of the Seventy, A.K.A Gordon B. Hinkley's son is also coming in that day! I am pretty stoked! haha I don't think I have ever been that close to a General Authority but man can't wait to see what that is like. Haha maybe I am making it seem like a bigger deal that it is but the MTC is finally not just another week! We are preparing to leave and it is so sweet that all our hard work is finally paying off. My Tagalog isn't very good still... Well in a sense it is not perfect. I think in my Zone I am the better of the Average... if that makes sense? So there are people who still haven't grasped the concepts, than there are the average ones, than there are the brainy elders who have the gift of tounges! haha Anyways though I can get my point across and hopefully the spirit will guide my words to peirce the heart of others! I can't wait to get out there and tell everyone with conviction that I know Jesus is the Chirst and God is our Heavenly Father. Man I wish everyone knew that.... Anyways I am excited! but Next tuesday will be the last day I will spend in America! SO SWEET! Well see ya!

District Leader!

Well today has been a normal week with kind of a twist I would guess. We have officially reached our 9th week! I am so closed to getting out of here! It is RIDICULOUS! anyways.. though, there isn't much going on. We are slowly trying to survive boredom and it just becomes weird. The MTC makes you weird! I say the weirdest things to people and it is because we have already talked about all the normal stuff! haha Anyways though we learned a lot this week about things. I think I would like to share an experience I had during my studies. Bearing your testimony is something some people think needs to be filled with a lot of eloquence and spiritual uplifting stories. Those things are good but nothing can beat your testimony as long as you say it with conviction. As long as you know the truth and you say it like it is something you have known your whole life and it is the principle of gravity than your testimony is STRONG! haha Anyways Sunday was kind of a surprise! I was called as a district leader... Dang! haha Responsibility is kind of hard because I like to goof around and now I am the one who has to tell people hey... maybe that is not the best use of our time. I am not going to say I am a good district leader because I already have slacked off haha! but, it is weird I was called because it will only be fore two weeks. For some reason God had a plan for me no matter how small or insignificant it is. I wish I could see the big picture of things, but as for my life I'll leave it in the hands of God and do whatever he asks of me. I can't help but feel guilty about being ungrateful for the blessings he has poured out unto me. I didn't notice them before, but now as I look back on my mission I can see he has been there every step of the way. I know God lives and he loves us. I know he knows each of us by name. No matter how hard and how much things don't make sense in your life, hold on because you'll see that God was just leading you to the greatest blessings ever. He will never fail you. I know that he won't. So yeah anyways I wish cool things happened in the MTC but they don't. I fell on my face today though. I broke the glass on my watch! haha well more like cracked. It still works though and I'll get it fixed maybe in the Philippines or something! anyways I love this Gospel and I can't wait to serve! Mahal Kita!

Happy New Year!

Well this week was probably the longest ever! My P-day landed on Christmas so it was almost like we didn't get a P-day for 2 weeks! So today has been such a relief! Anyways I can't believe how much time has passed by! I will be in the Philippines on Jan. 22 and today is the 1st! So HAPPY NEW YEARS! Man I am so excited to get the heck out of here! I can't stand the MTC anymore! I keep hitting days where I don't want to learn anymore I just want to sit in a land where people speak Tagalog and I have to be forced to learn or not know what they say! Anyways I don't know what to really say. Everyday is way hard to stay focus and I'm not going to lie I probably and the worst Elder in The MTC! I get so bored here that I goof off too much! haha I'm just kidding I goof off but in a obedient fashion ... haha! Well my best friend in my district named Elder Christiansen dislocated his knee. So pretty much I went to his physical therapy the first time and we told his companion that the doctor requested I come back over and over again so that I can help him with the workouts he taught us. Haha so I go on an exchange twice a week with him! It is so fun. Besides that everything else is getting way slow. My companion and I have a hard time teaching! In all honesty we have no chemistry in teaching and It is frustrating at times. . I am just going to not complain though .. haha this is probably my worst blog entry but I am just frustrated with being stuck here this week. Anyways Tagalog is actually coming along pretty well. I am really comfortable talking nonsense now. In reality I think I am doing OK i'm like not the worst but I'm definitely not the best in my zone. But Yeah Not much to say so sorry but I am so excited! haha I love ya all Pray hard and really pray investigators are prepared! This week was really boring and I really don't have much to say but hopefully next week I'll bounce back!

Christmas!

Welp this week has been hard to focus!!! CHRISTMAS!!! I feel so loved because a lot of people sent me packages haha. But besides that its been another week in the MTC! I can't seem to get enough practice with Tagalog ... I can try to speak but I just want someone to tell me that is wrong or right and tell me how to say it. I am really struggling with practicing by myself as you can see. Hopefully I can get to the field faster! Anyways some cool things that happened this week ... My district had this testimony meeting and it was so spiritual everyone told their story about how they gained their testimony. It was really nice and I love hearing their stories ... I realized though that I was enjoying theirs so much that I really didn't say mine. But I really found way more respect for my district .. even though I respected them so much already! Anyways I realized everyone has their own story, their own trial. Through that trial I have seen how much people have grown in their own ways. I have also seen how God helps them through those trials! Never forget God when things get hard. Anyways my companion and I taught the lesson in District meeting on Sunday. I learned something about the Spirit during my preparation that I thought was so powerful. The spirit is God's "Earnest" to you. If you look up Earnet in the Bible Dictionary it will explain it better. It is basically God's promise that the Gospel is true. But in the Bible Dictionary it says it is a "Foretaste" of Heaven ... or something to that extent. Maybe I am being a bit liberal in how I translated it but I though of a big Bowl of Ice cream. When you feel the spirit it's like you get a little bite of it. Think about it though that bite was sooo goood! and if you wait faithfully you can have the whole thing! I love food ... but I love the spirit more haha! I can't wait to have that "BIG BOWL OF ICE CREAM!" Anyways besides that noting cool ... ever happens at the MTC! well i mean in a more worldy sense.. So I wish I had more to say but I don't! Well Today is Christmas Eve so Marry Christmas everybody who reads this .. and if anyone reads this. .. haha but Mahal Kita and Maligayan Pasco. Oh cool thing realy quick ... tomorow for Christmas I think President Monson is coming .. So all the Missionaries get the best gift for Christmas! I love Chirstmas!