7/26/2013 Philippines MTC

July 26, 2013
Philippines MTC

Y'all,

Hello! It's hard to believe I'm halfway out of this training center place thing. Honestly, I can say I'm getting the feel of the language now. I can understand quite a bit about what is being said in, say, the Book of Mormon.

I have now two Filipino roommates. They're pretty cool, but what really bugs me is that it seems like they only need like 5 hours of sleep. So they always wake up early in the morning. I often wake up just to see them praying. They probably pray for like 30 minutes each morning! Even though they're a lot shorter than me, they have a taller spirit, so to speak.

I would say that my relationship with my kasama (companion) is probably one of the best here at the MTC. We are always early to everything, and teach really well together, even though we don't exactly talk a lot on our own. But we definitely love each other.

The MTC pres is rather fond of me, I think. He always seems to run into me when I'm doing something good. I have a picture with him. 

His first counselor, Bro. Villanueva, was able to come to one of Elder Langi’s and my investigator lessons, and it was by far the best lesson we had ever taught! Elder Langi took the words out of my mouth that I wished I had said when I asked him if he wanted to add anything. It was inspiring.   
Here's a picture of my companion Elder Langi, and the teacher I wrote you about last week:

Last Sunday was a pretty crazy day for me.  In our leadership meeting at 7:30, we had several new district leaders and sister leader missionaries who spoke up about their missionaries. There was one Chinese missionary that asked if the MTC could turn UP the temperature of the water in the drinking fountains because "cold water doesn't taste good." (I thought it isn't cold enough.) Another Filipino missionary said that his district wasn't comfortable using toilet paper, and that they ask to use "soap and water." I couldn't believe it!  We also had a surprise leadership meeting. Basically, there have been a bunch of viruses going around, and yeah, almost everybody around me has been getting sick. But, I've been healthy this entire time! I feel so blessed. Oh yeah, and this is a picture of all of the missionaries from America.

At district meeting, I gave a lesson to my district. I was really nervous, because I really wanted to hit hard the importance of being on time and following all of the rules. I was really stern--REALLY stern! I felt crummy afterwards, and I felt i just destroyed the relationship I had with my district. But later, as we were all coming back from companionship study, they asked me to give the lesson again because they liked it! I couldn't believe it. (I didn't, btw.)

Later on in the day, the Tongans in our group told me more about Tongan culture. For one, they share EVERYTHING, regardless of how much you want it yourself, and it's super offensive to not share. If you buy a car, it's also your neighbor’s car. Get the picture?

They also don't really *agree* with the idea of punctuality. They don't like being rushed, and prefer to just be happy doing things on their own time, which has really stressed me out as a district leader since I’m supposed to keep things organized. For example, for roll call in the mornings I often have to wait another 30 minutes before I can go to breakfast because they're still sleeping or taking a shower. And they love to sing, which I'm okay with. For Sunday's language study, we sang the missionary purpose in Tagalog to the tune of "The Spirit of God" and the last part was "Come Follow Me." It was awesome!

Starting on Saturday, our teacher gave us the "only 20 words English every day" rule. To be rather blunt, it was ridiculously hard, and stressed me out. But it's definitely helped me progress in the language

.

This Wednesday I get to go proselytizing with a missionary in the field! The class above me has given me some crazy stories. For example, they've taught a 14 year old married woman who is pregnant... or taught a man who hasn't eaten for three days who looks happier than they had ever seen. Crazy stories. I can't wait!

My favorite part of the day right now is probably companionship study. My kasama and I have this system where one of us reads in Tagalog while the other looks on in English, and then we switch. I always feel the spirit of God so strongly, even if I have no idea or connection about what's going on. 

I can see that a lot of missionaries are losing confidence here at the MTC, though. I can understand why. It's tough. But, I think their problem is that they haven’t figured out yet that they need to be willing to be changed, and that makes all of the difference. I am definitely changing as a person. If I were to go home right now, my life would be so much more productive, and I would try to keep just as busy as I am right now, as well as read the Book of Mormon more and I would just be a happier person.

On Tuesday the fire alarm unexpectedly went off at around probably 3 o'clock. I smelled fire, and my district quickly went to the grass in the front. We had had fire drills earlier, and so this was quite unusual. A minute later a fire truck pulled up and a bunch of firemen jumped out and hurried up to the second floor, and then came down with an elder in a stretcher. But it was all fake. Booooooooooooooo! 

Also, two of my silk ties have stains in them now. Neither time was it my fault, though.

Elder Ardern of the Seventy spoke to us this past Tuesday. He gave a talk a few General Conferences ago, about angry birds, I think. He talked with us about power.  The quote by him I'll remember is this: "Participation Precedes Revelation." He was speaking to us missionaries, whether in classes, or during lessons, or when you companion is talking. It's so true! My life has been so much better because of it.

There are some crazy missionaries who arrived recently. There's a sister missionary who is the nicest person I've ever met, who is also a midget! I want to be more like her. And also there's an Elder Sister! Elder Wejendran is from Sri Lanka, and has become one of my best friends. I love hearing about other people's country while they’re here.  There are two brothers here who are going to the same mission! One's a year older than the other. Isn't that crazy? They didn't like request to go to the same mission, but there they are! I want to travel to every country where my new friends come from. But I know that the missionaries are the best part of the country. 

Here's the bottom line: I can't wait to get out in the field!

Love,

Elder Thurber

7/19/2013 Philippines MTC

July 19^th, 2013 email:

Sorry, I didn't send a big chunk of my last email; the computer logged me out. I think I just sent it just now, though.

Times are getting even more busy! It's amazing how much I can get done in one day. Even on P-day, I'm rushing from one place to another. It's crazy. I never get enough done of what I want to accomplish in one day (including emails), though. 

My day usually starts at 5 AM, when I go to gym with my kasama (companion). We spend our time playing volleyball (which he rocks at) with a few other people.

There's roll call at 6:10, which everybody is always late to, besides us. Then I go to my district room at 7:00, and then gospel/language study basically until lunch. We get a 20 minute break for a snack. Other than that, it's hard work. Other things we do are TALL (Technology Assisted Language Learning). Preach My Gospel activities, role-playing in Tagalog, different lessons, and giving lessons to our "investigators" aka our teachers. It's all so tiring, but I get through it!

Our “investigator” lessons are always really nerve wracking. The teachers really get into their persona and they mainly speak in Tagalog. We started out by bringing pieces of paper to read the investigators, but we're now doing it by memory, so we're actually learning the language.

Our teachers, however, tell us we're nowhere close to being "native speakers."  Like, the other day, my Kasama wanted to ask, "Could we come over later?" but instead said "Could we kiss you later?" to which she burst out laughing. We had no idea what he said until we talked to some Philippinos later. I also accidentally said, "Jesus nailed the Jews to the cross" instead of "The people nailed Jesus to the cross." I'm pretty sure I'll be taking people away from the gospel before I'll bring any to the gospel. But, I did actually commit Nathanael my investigator to baptism! I said, “Susundan mo ba ang halimbawa ni jesucrist sa pamamagitan na pagpapabinyag sa isang taong ng maytaglay ng awtoridad ng priesthood ng diyos?” I was super happy I remembered all of that. I was smiling like a fool for a good 30 minutes.

My kasama and I have our cultural differences, which can be hard. But overtime we've gained a lot of respect for each other. He gave me a Tongan shirt the other day. It's now my favorite shirt, and I now tell people I'm from Tonga. I'm going to give him one of my ties when I'm done here. 

The food here is..... extremely fattening. I'm definitely gaining weight. And yes, we get rice for basically every meal, in case you were wondering. They love serving us Tang as well. We get to go to this grocery store on P-days. I spent 1020 pisos last time and got a bunch of imported American stuff, but this time I got more stuff and spent only 450 bc I bought the Filippino brand. Also, Nutella was about 6 bucks, but I bought it anyways.

There were 72 missionaries along with me two weeks ago. But this week there are a whooping 140! It's amazing how many missionaries are streaming into this place! Most of them are Philippino. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE PHILIPPINOS! They're all so nice and funny and have great testimonies. It's the best. 

Tagalog is pretty confusing, but I'm sort of getting to know at least what I'm confused about now. They love their prefixes and suffixes. And the words change based off of the most important part of the sentence (verb, actor, location, etc), which English doesn't consider. For example, "I am GOING running" would be spelled out very differently than "I am going RUNNING". Does that make any sense? 

Honestly, I hardly remember life before the MTC. (I got sad a little bit when i realized it was 7/11 and couldn't get a Slurpee, but other than that, I'm really so happy to be here!) It's been the best 2 weeks of my life! 

I've become famous when it comes to piano. I play for every mtg. I absolutely love it, though I'm getting out of shape. (Sorry, Dr. Hanson!)  (I tried playing the Ocean etude by Chopin and I could barely make it four pages before my fingers stiffened up.)  I was also asked to give, with 1 minute to prepare, a 3 minute talk for church. I took 5 minutes. What's happened to me? :o 

Right before coming here to write this email, I found out two more missionaries are moving into my room! They're Philippino! Yay! 

I also have gone running a few times with Elder Webb and one of his kasamas Elder Wilkinson. During the middle of one run, it started pouring and pouring and pouring, but we kept on running! It was so, so relieving. The other one of Elder Webb's kasamas (companion) is related to my companion, and I seriously think he's six years old. But, my kasama loves to talk to him, so we listen, too. He (E Langi) loves playing pranks and laughing. He's become rather infamous. Just yesterday, there was a teaching demonstration and Elder Webb started falling asleep. E Langi started laughing, and my kasama did too. I didn't think it was funny until E Webb woke up and looked around and wondered what was so funny, and then went back to sleep, not knowing we were laughing. I couldn't help but laugh, and laugh..... and laugh.... and laugh. I knew I was part of the reason the Spirit wasn't in the lesson, and I felt terrible. E Langi also loves to come into our room and talk in Tongan with my kasama. It's common that E Webb and Wilkinson come in after looking for him for a while.

Honestly, I can't wait to get out on my mission! Just going to the grocery store on p-day (preparation day--the one day a week we do things other than missionary work), there have been 3 people that have come up to me and asked me about my religion (in English). And I give them pass along cards and tell them a little bit about the gospel! I'm not even doing anything! 

Paalam po lahat! (goodbye everybody!)

Matthew's Emails from His First Week now in correct order

(Matthew’s mom here:  I have now put Matthew’s emails from his first week in the correct order in this post.)

“Travels, Tongans, "Tuuuuuurber," Trials, and Thankfulness”

Written July 11^th, 2013, received July 19th

Dear Everyone,

I'm practically crying right now out of excitement! This week has been unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life. I hope you enjoy reading about it, because I really enjoyed experiencing it!

My flights went pretty well. I was able to first meet a man named Calvin going to Spokane. I actually gave him a pass-along card! I felt like a missionary. The flights weren't too bad. I was able to read practically everything in my bag and eat all the snacks I brought along as well. What made the flight difficult was that every. single. seat. had an in-flight screen with up-to-date movies like Ironman III, or Life of Pi etc, etc. Since mission rules are that we’re not supposed to watch movies, I tried my best not to look, but basically everybody was watching movies. But I resisted!

I absolutely loved being in the Japan airport. The people are the most quaint people I've ever seen in my life. They seem to live a life of peace and tranquility. Every worker was smiling and very polite. All of the massage chairs were being used (and there were quite a few). The people.... ahhhhh.... it makes me want to live in Japan one day, or at least go on vacation when I'm rich and stuff.

Once I got to the Philippines, it was a different story. Bear in mind, I didn't sleep on the plane--I figured it would be better for dealing with jet lag. As soon as I got out of the plane I smelled the polluted Philippino air. Blech. People were everywhere. When I got to customs, there was a guy in his 40s who asked me what I was doing there. Turns out, he was a Baptist missionary. He said, "Let the true religion win." I just laughed. Bear in mind I was sleep deprived and nobody knew practically any English. Turns out he was going to be staying in the Manila Airport Hotel like me. Once I got outside, we took the same van to the airport. Ladies and Gentleman, the Manila Airport is the pinnacle of dense population and pollution! I had never seen so many people in my life cramped into such a small, small place. When I got to the hotel and unpacked, I went outside. All the rooms were in little huts, and the best part was this pet monkey who was leashed to a circular pole on top of all of the roofs.

images from http://elderconnorschroedermission.blogspot.com/2013/06/manila-mtc-first-week.html and Manila Airport Hotel web page

Probably the most remarkable moment of my journey was the car ride the next morning over to the airport. That was BY FAR the craziest car ride of my life. If you know me, that's really saying something. Basically, every car was a foot from each other at all times. There were always motorcycles riding in between the lanes. I certainly prayed my heart out—for my life! The new civilized apartment buildings were at least 20 stories high, and right next to them were the slums. People were everywhere. I cannot exaggerate that enough! I'm really understanding Dan Brown’s new book and the overpopulation thing now. It was soooo weird. I'm just thankful I'm here. I'm so glad I'm not allowed to drive here in Manila b/c I'm pretty sure I would come back to America in two pieces.

And then... I saw the temple. In the midst of the chaos, serenity.

Sorry, if that was cheesy.I helped carry luggage and stuff for everybody. I quickly became friends with Elder Webb, who would later become a zone leader. He was from St George I think. I found out just yesterday that his mile was 4:15!!!! But he is so nice and everybody loves him. At first, people kinda organized themselves into groups based on race/nationality. There are 21 different countries represented in this MTC. 

image from lds.org

The mission president said that they don't have enough flags in the front of the MTC to represent all of the different countries. Most of us, however, found ourselves with companions of another nationalities.

 President and Sister Beck  (Picture from http://www.mormonnewsroom.ph/article/new-mormon-missionary-training-center-president-arrives-in-manila)

My companion is Elder Langi. He's the man! He talks quietly like most Tongans do, but he has a great spirit, and teaching with him is so awesome. He knows English better than most other Tongans here, and he's always very polite (almost too polite). He's really into volleyball, and he loves to laugh at my dancing, which I did when I ran over to the computer to write this email :) He is super good at volleyball. He said at Tonga he would spend about 3 hours playing every day. On top of that, he lifts weights. He can bench 280. 

I became the District Leader for the "Mosiah District." It's rather ironic name, because we're mostly sisters, not the "Sons of Mosiah.”  In fact, we're the only elders in the entire district

So my computer is telling me I have three minutes to finish writing, but I know for a fact I have an hour. So I'm going to upload a few pictures on here now. Sorry it literally takes 15 minutes to upload 1 photo here. I don't know how this'll all work. I may be sending you two emails. Sorry about that. Yeah OK bye.

(Below is the email entitled “Continuation” which we received July 11^th  )

“Continuation”

July 11, 2013

Well, the responsibilities are pretty easy for district leaders--make sure everybody is on time to everything, everybody gets blessings if they're sick or homesick... etc etc. There are a lot of New Zealanders here. I LOVE NEW ZEALANDERS!! They're all so tall and conversationable and have a sweet accent. Plus they're awesome at basketball (there are a lot of ballhandlers here at the MTC). I didn't know the church was that strong there, but it is! They provide me a lot of inspiration.

Most Tongan girls here are really crazy. Bring three of them together in one place, and they will be laughing their head off in a matter of thirty seconds. It's incredible. They love trying to say my last name. I never knew my last name was hard to say. But, when they're being spiritual, they get REALLY spiritual. But, that only happens some of the time. We do most of our events in our district room, and it's hard to keep them reverent or "quiet dignity" as they put it. My challenge is they (and a lot of my district) don’t take the rule of keeping with their companions seriously. And the teachers ask me to look after them. But don't get me wrong, I love talking to them. 

I was able to go to the temple. I was actually an escort for this Filippino who didn't know any english. He was practically peeing his pants out of nervousness, but he got through it okay. When I opened the scriptures, I came upon the scripture Ether 12:27. Need I say more? I felt really happy then. 

The food is pretty good here. Rice is served for practically every meal. It's not too bad. I actually get to go over to the convenience store in just a little bit. I heard they have oreos. I can barely wait.

Philippines MTC image from lds.org

One more thing, me and my kasama (companion) are always the first ones to get up in the morning. Turns out, I only need 7 hours of sleep! We go to the gym early in the morning and exercise, on top of the 1 hour of exercise we get during gym, but there are too many people then and it's hard to do anything.

Philippines MTC image from lds.org

What do I miss most? Definitely being able to understand everybody.

The second day we started out with our first investigator, Gloria Talaman. She barely knew any english. We basically wrote down a bunch of phrases to tell her. Only later did we find out that she will be our next teacher next week. I figured, though. She looked like a teacher. Our current teacher is bro Rondilla, and he's like 5 feet tall and super adorable and super skinny.

My kasama Elder Langi and Brother Rondila

I've been learning the language okay, but I get frustrated with myself at times. I just want to get that part over with and start teaching for real!

Is there anybody I need to pray for in the ward? I pray so much that I run out of the things to say! Also, could you give me the email and physical addresses for my friends? 

There’s a lot of ruckus that happens here at the MTC, but I’m surviving and I still love the Lord.  Just send me as many emails as you can. I'd appreciate it!

I love you to death!

Matt

First p-day news

Matthew’s Mom here:  We only got a partial email from Matthew; there seems to have been some kind of computer problem which messed up the first part of his email.  Hopefully he will be able to fix this on his next p-day.  We gather from what he said that Matthew is the district leader. 

Here is a link to a welcome message from the Philippines MTC President:  http://www.lds.org/locations/missionary-training-centers/philippines/welcome?lang=eng&country=ca

Matthew:

“Family,

Well, the responsibilities are pretty easy for district leaders--make sure everybody is on time to everything, everybody gets blessings if they're sick or homesick... etc etc. There are a lot of New Zealanders here. I LOVE NEW ZEALANDERS!! They're all so tall and conversationable and have a sweet accent. Plus they're awesome at basketball (there are a lot of ballhandlers here at the MTC). I didn't know the church was that strong there, but it is! They provide me a lot of inspiration.

Most Tongan girls here are really crazy. Bring three of them together in one place, and they will be laughing their head off in a matter of thirty seconds. It's incredible. They love trying to say my last name. I never knew my last name was hard to say. But, when they're being spiritual, they get REALLY spiritual. But, that only happens some of the time. We do most of our events in our district room, and it's hard to keep them reverent or "quiet dignity" as they put it. My challenge is they (and a lot of my district) don’t take the rule of keeping with their companions seriously. And the teachers ask me to look after them. But don't get me wrong, I love talking to them. 

I was able to go to the temple. I was actually an escort for this Filippino who didn't know any english. He was practically peeing his pants out of nervousness, but he got through it okay. When I opened the scriptures, I came upon the scripture Ether 12:27. Need I say more? I felt really happy then. 

The food is pretty good here. Rice is served for practically every meal. It's not too bad. I actually get to go over to the convenience store in just a little bit. I heard they have oreos. I can barely wait.

One more thing, me and my kasama (companion) are always the first ones to get up in the morning. Turns out, I only need 7 hours of sleep! We go to the gym early in the morning and exercise, on top of the 1 hour of exercise we get during gym, but there are too many people then and it's hard to do anything.

What do I miss most? Definitely being able to understand everybody.

The second day we started out with our first investigator, Gloria Talaman. She barely knew any english. We basically wrote down a bunch of phrases to tell her. Only later did we find out that she will be our next teacher next week. I figured, though. She looked like a teacher. Our current teacher is bro Rondilla, and he's like 5 feet tall and super adorable and super skinny. I've been learning the language okay, but I get frustrated with myself at times. I just want to get that part over with and start teaching for real!

Is there anybody I need to pray for in the ward? I pray so much that I run out of the things to say! Also, could you give me the email and physical addresses for my friends? 

There’s a lot of ruckus that happens here at the MTC, but I’m surviving and I still love the Lord.  Just send me as many emails as you can. I'd appreciate it!

I love you to death!

Matt

The Pre-mission Post

Greetings! This is my ridiculously "small and simple" missionary blog. Hopefully many great things will be brought to pass here.
If all goes well, I'll be posting every week about my fun experiences with people I'll meet and places I'll go in the Philippines, as well as some Tagalog words I enjoy, or anything that comes up that I like (or dislike). From now on, my mom, Carolyn Thurber, will be the one that takes portions of my weekly email I get to send my family and post it on over here.
Also, be warned: I will write some spiritual experiences that will help me and the people around me strengthen our testimonies. If you're not comfortable with that, please just skip over it. I won't be offended. Spirituality aside, I'm sure I'll be having a crazy experience that you'll enjoy reading.

Thanks!