I love and miss you all SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!! And I LOVE your dear Elder letters. They make me so dang happy oh my goodness I can't even explain it. Thank you so much for keeping me updating with everything that's going on at home:) It keeps me sane in this place.
Can you believe I am already on my 5th week?!!! Like what? Time is weird in the mission. It goes by so fast, it's unbelievable. The week after next I'm going to be in the Philippines for heavens sake!
Today we get our flight plans. I'm not sure if I'll be able to email after we get them or if I'll just have to wait until next next Friday. I do know, however that we are leaving on October 29, Nov 4th is when we leave the Manilla MTC and I'll actually be headed for Tacloban. Oct 29th is a Thursday I believe, and word has it that we'll be leaving the MTC around 3:30 and our flight from the airport leaves around 8 am.....ugh. so early.
Anyways, the whole week I've been joking to myself that they chose Sister Garcia to be a Sister Training Leader because she will be a wonderful support for the girls and they chose me to be a Sister Training Leader because they think that if I have to enforce the rules, I might actually follow them. (Hence, "prison" in the title) Our zone is known for having the strictest branch presidency in the MTC. You will not believe some of the rules they enforce. Hahahaha it's very humorous though.
I found out this week that our branch presidency were the same people for David Archuleta when he went through the MTC. Cool right?! Poor guy, he probably was told to stop singing all the time. Poor little Archuleta.
Yesterday, we got to skype return missionaries living in the Philippines! It was so much fun! Each companionship was assigned a computer in this big lab, and mine and Sister Garcia's skype buddy wasn't answering our skype call, so we just got to hang out and look around and all the Philippino faces on the screens. Hehe they are so cute!!!! At first, everyone was super nervous, but when you actually see their faces on the screens, oh my gosh, it's just so cool. When everyone was finally finished, they got someone for us we could talk to. She spoke hardly any Cebuano, just Tagolog and English, so we spoke in English but it was still so fun. I'm. So. Excited. And so ready to get out of the MTC!, I met a missionary who is here for 9 weeks to learn Mandarin, and then another 2 to learn English for some reason. And they just got here. My heart goes out to the poor souls.
The 28th, the Wednesday before we leave, I'll be able to email all day long. It'll be like our last P-day in the MTC - reserved for emails and packing. But...Thursday I GET TO CALL HOME! WOOHOO!!! We get to call when we get to California where we should have a 5 hour layover. At first we were told we'd be stopping in San Fran but now we've heard that it'll be LAX. Which is good because Elder O'Rullian, who's from LA, says that's the best airport because way huge and will be kinda fun.
This week, the biggest thing that happened was Sister Garcia and I were made Sister Training Leaders of the Zone. That's kind of like Zone Leaders but for the sisters specifically. Sister Garcia is absolutely wonderful with all the sisters. They all completely adore her and want to tell her everything they're struggling with and want her advice on everything, especially the Polynesian sisters - which there's a lot of. Culture differences are definitely something I've never really been exposed to before. All of the Polynesians in our zone are some of the happiest people I've ever met but they definitely have had there differences that have caused some struggles in our zone in the past couple of weeks. For example, one of the elders made a big deal about how they all are too flirty and they're breaking MTC rules because they're smiling too much at the elders. Hahahahahaha. You can imagine the Polynesian sisters were not happy about that. So Sister Garcia is wonderful because her family is from El Salvador and they love talking to her about the culture shock and dealing with us white people:)
Then there's me. Don't worry, I am my happy self and I'm good friends with all of the sisters, but BY FAR closer with all of the elders. I feel like I have a bunch of annoying brothers for the first time in my life. They absolutely love driving me to the brink of insanity. And yet, somehow I love them all. Honestly though, they hold nothing back from me...we have become to close. It makes me sad for Dad because I realize how much he must be in control of the little boy inside him since living in an all girl family....that poor little boy just waiting to break out.This week, the biggest thing that happened was Sister Garcia and I were made Sister Training Leaders of the Zone. That's kind of like Zone Leaders but for the sisters specifically. Sister Garcia is absolutely wonderful with all the sisters. They all completely adore her and want to tell her everything they're struggling with and want her advice on everything, especially the Polynesian sisters - which there's a lot of. Culture differences are definitely something I've never really been exposed to before. All of the Polynesians in our zone are some of the happiest people I've ever met but they definitely have had there differences that have caused some struggles in our zone in the past couple of weeks. For example, one of the elders made a big deal about how they all are too flirty and they're breaking MTC rules because they're smiling too much at the elders. Hahahahahaha. You can imagine the Polynesian sisters were not happy about that. So Sister Garcia is wonderful because her family is from El Salvador and they love talking to her about the culture shock and dealing with us white people:)
Anyways, the whole week I've been joking to myself that they chose Sister Garcia to be a Sister Training Leader because she will be a wonderful support for the girls and they chose me to be a Sister Training Leader because they think that if I have to enforce the rules, I might actually follow them. (Hence, "prison" in the title) Our zone is known for having the strictest branch presidency in the MTC. You will not believe some of the rules they enforce. Hahahaha it's very humorous though.
I found out this week that our branch presidency were the same people for David Archuleta when he went through the MTC. Cool right?! Poor guy, he probably was told to stop singing all the time. Poor little Archuleta.
Yesterday, we got to skype return missionaries living in the Philippines! It was so much fun! Each companionship was assigned a computer in this big lab, and mine and Sister Garcia's skype buddy wasn't answering our skype call, so we just got to hang out and look around and all the Philippino faces on the screens. Hehe they are so cute!!!! At first, everyone was super nervous, but when you actually see their faces on the screens, oh my gosh, it's just so cool. When everyone was finally finished, they got someone for us we could talk to. She spoke hardly any Cebuano, just Tagolog and English, so we spoke in English but it was still so fun. I'm. So. Excited. And so ready to get out of the MTC!, I met a missionary who is here for 9 weeks to learn Mandarin, and then another 2 to learn English for some reason. And they just got here. My heart goes out to the poor souls.
One of the things I'm most excited for is the Philippino food!!!!!! Woohoo! No more MTC food!!!! It looks so good. All of our teachers have shown us pictures of it and wow. Devine.
I love you all so much!!!!!!!!! Keep working hard and be happy!!!!!!
Love Ken
No comments:
Post a Comment