Week 5

Kamusta Po Kayo!

I think it's been 5 weeks in here, and we have 4 left.. I think. 26 days till Christmas though. First off, thanks so much for the package- it was awesome. I'll send a picture of the christmas lights eventually, and yeah I've taken a few pictures already. There's not much to photo here, so the majority is of the temple and such. Just did another initiatory session this morning, I like those more than Endowment sessions, but we may switch back next week. Yeah, we got dumped on a few days ago so there's a lot of snow- but the cold isn't too bad. And I've got a fresh layer of fatty fat so that keeps me insulated quite nicely. Food here is killing me, but I'm optomistic on this Philippines Diet I'll be switching to in a month. Crazy to think that it's December soon. Um, it doesn't really feel like I've been in here a month- but at the same time it does. It's kind of strange that way. In all honesty though it's true- if you can get what I mean- that days are long but weeks are short. We plan for the week as a district every Friday, and you hit that next Friday and look back and are like what? We're already planning? But when you're waking up at 6:30 in the morning, it feels like you've been working for a week by the time 9:30 rolls around.

Also I'm stoked to hear that June and Arber came over too! I haven't heard much from Arber, but I'm really happy they stopped by. And yeah, June keeps cutting her hair , aha , but she can pull it off and likes the way it looks so that's all that's important. My english is definitely getting worse, too, so if I start misspelling words I apologize. I often take a second look at a lot of things I write. Not so much type, but so many words like 'develop' develope?' look so weird now. Tagalog is climbing pretty fast still, and it's pretty silly to think that after just a month I can pretty much say anything that I want to. It's not the most fluid, and I've definitely got to think it out in my head before saying it- but I've noticed that a lot of words have taken on their own meaning now. And I don't translate them from English before I say them. Little ones like oo , hindi , siyempre , talaga , pasensiya , and others. But our class has now switched over to complete Tagalog, so English is ' bawal ' sa klase. (prohibited). One good thing about Tagalog is that a lot of their nouns come from when the spanish had control of the country. So a lot of words that soaked in through my 5 years of hilarious espanol have been a big help in understanding things. There's still a majority of nouns sa Tagalog, but it definitely helps to always have that.

The coat you sent me is the one I got from Gap, but it keeps me really warm so thank you. I would love gloves, haha, send soon. AND NO MORE SNACKS!! haha even my roommates have started to refuse them! I wouldn't mind so much if they were like fiber one bars and stuff, but when you bake them they go bad really quick in our room because it's a pretty humid climate with the warm air and cold air, and what not. So they grow mold fast, so we have to eat them fast, which suucks. I feel gross enough from eating the cafeteria food, so please please no more baked stuff, haha. Thank you so much for the drink packets, too. Um - the Rexburg clothes have still not come , you may want to call him. And I don't need anymore shoes, these ones are going to last me for a while. I'll be surprised if I buy another pair before a year is up. Um, please send the King Follet Discourse to me. It's a Joseph Smith talk. You can just copy and past into Dear Elder if you want. Also the BOM Easier w/e books, send those too if you can.

So Thanksgiving. The week here has been pretty normal, but Elder Holland came on Thanksgiving and gave an awesome talk, as usual. Mostly about families, but about the savior and stuff and it was just really good insight and he is clearly the most powerful speaker of the 15. I love hearing him speak. Also I started doing choir a couple weeks ago, and we actually sang Come Thou Fount last tuesday during Devo, which is the best church song that's been written.. clearly. But other than that they have really bad selection of songs. I've come to like the song Master, the Tempest is Raging a lot too. And started to dislike Called to Serve.. aha. We sing is sooo often.

Okay, that's all I got for today I think. Maybe I'll write a handwritten letta, depends on how much time I have. Thanks for everything mom + pop. Also can someone send me a Monday New York Times Crossword once a week? I've got time on P-Days and like 15 minutes at night to do it, and I would love to make sure that the MTC isn't completely dumbing me.

Salamat po.
Mahal Kita!

4th letter

Kumusta po kayo pamilya ko.

So. I'll handle those questions first.
1. Send one of grandpa's long dress coats if you can find them, if not then maybe that black coat but that might be a bit big, same with the grey one. Despite me gaining mad poundage here. The food is not designed for any type of weight control. I got Callie's sweater, and thanked her for it I think. If not, thanks again callie it's very nice. Hopefully you bought it at TJ MAXX tho. It was a Perry Ellis, which is like half of tj maxx sweaters.

2. I still haven't tried that contact, I'm sorry. I'll try it soon- I just have been trying to make these last, ya know. But I'll try that one and let you know. But a month with the same pair and I only wear them 1/2 a day at most, and they work fine- so that's all good.

3. Yes. Lights. Very soon. Please. Multi Colored ones.

4. No. More. Sweets. Thank you very very much, but I am done with this weight gain, haha. My roommates love em, but even they have stopped takig them all the time. So also thank callie for the odwalla's but no more drinks either. Feel free to send those crystal light and hi-c and kool aid packets tho to make individual drinks. You'll save me some coin with that. But yeah, no more cookies please. Even granola is kind of iffy on the healthy side.. there's so much brown sugar and stuff in that. I don't know what would be healthy, but if you can think of it you can send it.


So. This week has gone by a lot quicker than past weeks, but still my head is near it's capacity with this language, haha. I can't really write anything reflective of what I know. But I can tell you that in our last TA (the fake investigator thing we do on Thursday nights) I could understand pretty much everything the guy had to say.. which is kind of silly seeing as it was only after 3 weeks in here. So I really cannot imagine what I'll have learned after 5 more weeks.. but I am stoked to get to the Philippines. The district above us just got their flight plans and they leave in 2 weeks, so we'll be right after them. That two weeks will go by so quick too. Saturday afternoon to Wednesday blows by in a second. No classes after 4 on saturday, so that's all studying. Then sunday is just church and studying, then monday is temple and studying then an easy class at night. Then Tuesday is class in the afternoon then devotional at night. Oh and Fireside and movie on Sundays too. so it honestly feels like a 3 or 4 day weekend, almost. The only long days are Wed, Th, Friday. But even that's not all that bad. Things with my companion go up and down so often, that every day is unpredictable. It's just kind of hilarious that they literally picked the one person who is my dimensional opposite. Like in every single aspect. Even opposite sides of the country. So we have opposing views on almost every single subject, and he's dealing with personal things at home so that distracts him a lot.... Not much to say really, but it has made the MTC a very big challenge dealing with all that on top of studies. I love it here though, for the most part. And for some reason have picked up a big liking of volleyball.. and have gotten pretty good (obviously). And I see Tanner's friend Collin everywhere I turn so that's fun to always have a familiar face.

Our district is awesome too, we've come so close together but Mom you said you wanted spiritual so I'll give you as much as I think I should write. The past 24 hours have been some of the most spiritually intense moments and events of my life. We have an Elder in our district that is fighting some emotional issues that are hard to describe, and the emotions he's told us just seem absolutely horrible. Mom, there is a very real presence of the Adversary here in the MTC and he comes into people's lives here and it is scary. They don't reflect it, but I could see it on my friends face and the way he was describing his thoughts and it was heartbreaking. I don't think I should tell you in detail the events that took place, nothing out of the ordinary to be honest. But it's almost breathtaking of how real the spirit is. Me and and the Elder's I was with should not have been where we were last night, we should not have made the decisions we did, and it was odd that we made them. Now, I know you're reading these words and thinking that I mean negatively "should not" but what I'm saying is that 9/10 times we would never have chosen to go a certain way we did, which means that that 1/10 chance we had last night was absolutely startling what took place after. This is all confusing, and maybe I'll explain more in detail some other time but last night was crazy. I heard me and the Elders around me say things to comfort our friend that I KNOW did not come from us. Just too many events took place last night that were concrete evidence of another force acting through us. And You and I and everyone else knows exactly what that was. Again, I didn't even write about this in my journal in depth because I don't think writing it down would be a good idea, but going to the temple today just solidified everything that I felt last night.. it's weird. Ha.

So there ya go, that's your spiritual news for the next 23 months. Things like that don't happen all the time, but I'll tell you that at about 6:00 yesterday this Elder was 100% positive he was packing up and leaving. He was done. By the time 10:00 rolled around we had no doubt in our minds that he is staying. That is missionary work.

Mahal Kita, pamilya ko.

Elder White

3rd letter

Araw Tatlo.
That means week three. I'm basically fluent in Tagalog at this point. I've gotten a bit bored with it though, so I've taken up learning German and Mandarin as well. Just not enough challenged here in the MTC.
 
OH! How did no one get that quote? It's buster from the pilot of Arrested Development. I'll say the whole quote.
 
-"Buster's had classes in business."
-- "6th Century AGGRARIAN (awful spelling) business. Now tell me, are we all concerned about an uprising?"
 
You'll laugh when you realize what it is. Um, not much to report for this week though. The language is definitely coming, slowly, but I'm learning. I can say probably 50% of what I want to say, but not very well. Everything is about the noun markers ang, ng, and sa. You have the place them correctly or else the emphasis and the verb conjugation will make no sense and they'll look at you and go 'Ano?' So ... yeah. We had our 4th apostle in a row for Devo this past Tuesday- Wow he was so good. Elder Bednar. One of the best talks I've ever heard and if there is any way for you to track it down I encourage you to listen to it. It's all about how we make the mistake of focusing on the applications in the church and we need to focus on the doctrine. Applications answer how, but doctrines answer why and I loved that. Kids here just recite the lessons from PMG and they become these missionary robots. That's not how you teach. You teach from the spirit and you teach with love and you teach with doctrine. that's how you get through to people. It was a really good talk, go find it. Oh, before I forget. Please send me like a black V-Neck sweater if you can find one, it's really cold here. Or brandons jacket if he'll give it to me. Also Christmas lights. We want christmas lights. Please send. Not alot, they're just for our room but we need to get this festivus for the restofus rolling.
 
Other than that, there's not much going on. Had some bumps along the road this week with my companion, but you work over them. We just have such intensely clashing personalities that it can't be helped. He's a good guy at heart though, and I try and see that. Okay well I'm about out of time but I'll write you guys a letter today cuz I didn't last week.
 
Mahal Kita-
Elder Puti (white..)
 
Oh and thank Trevor and Brandon for their letters too. And Callie I need your email address if you want an email. haha. but I'll write everyone back today.

2nd letter

"Now tell me, are we all concerned about an uprising?"

(Show that to Brandon, Trevor, Callie, and Courtney.. maybe Andrea will get it)

How you guys doing? I just got your package today mom, thank you so much for it. I share pretty much everything I get with my companion and roommates, so they thank you as well. Um, I guess I'll recap the week briefly. Not much has changed this week. Cramming more Tagalog into my brain, I feel like I know more than I should. Reading every day, as much as I can. They don't give you too much time to really read every day, but I got through 2nd Nephi this week so I was happy about that. Sundays is when I get the majority of my reading done. We had Elder Ballard come speak on Tuesday which was way cool. He gave a good talk about stuff I can't really remember anymore, but it's in my notes, haha. That's kind of what happens, you don't remember most of what is said in Devotionals and Firesides but it's all in your notes. Then last night we had the CEO of Deseret Book come and speak to us. She gave a really good talk, very intelligent woman. Devotionals are the big speakers of the week, so on Tuesdays people kind of spread rumors about whose coming. Usually President Monson and Joseph Smith are the popular two to be speaking. But this week the word about Elder Ballard got out, so when we were in our seats and the conductor of the meeting was like "just as a reminder, anytime an apostle of the Lord walks in we all rise" every one kind of went nuts. It just confirmed it, so it was cool to have that experience. It's weird thinking that President Monson gave a very personal talk to us sitting 10 feet away.... Um, what else. Oh Thursday we had the TA appointment of the week. That's the Teaching Appointment where we go to this building and as a district (the 10 of us) you go in companions to a room. And you two have to hold a conversation with somebody for 5 minutes in Tagalog and then switch rooms. You switch rooms three times and then teach a discussion in English for 30 minutes to the last person you teach. It was a crazy experience. My companion isn't picking up Tagalog as fast as I am so I was pretty much the only one talking during that. So strange. You basically introduce yourself, ask where they're from, how old they are, what their family is like, how they're doing, what their name is, any question really to get to know someone. So to speak in Tagalog for 5 minutes to someone who is either actually Filipino or recently off their mission, so they speak so fast, is incredibly difficult. I couldn't understand so much of what they were saying beacuse they were speaking so fast but I would pick up individual words that would allow me to form the rest of the sentence around those words. It's a weird experience. But also to hear myself speaking Tagalog back to them and having a conversation as my companion just sits there very confused was really funny. One of the guys said I sounded like a Filipino too after it... ahaha. So then on our last one we got to know him in Tagalog then taught him the first lesson in English. It went really well. We were rocky at parts, being our first discussion really. But at the end when we were teaching about the Restoration, Joseph Smith, and bearing testimonies it was awesome how well we did. That's where my companion is strong in, he has a really good testimony that you can feel, ya know.

Uh, so today we went to the temple. Did a session. Came home. Oh, I got my hair buzzed today. I was so sick of having to do my hair every morning and after gym, and using pomade twice a day that I wanted it all off. So now I've got at least a week , I think , of not having to do anything to my hair which I'm psyched about. It looks a little weird because they can't go as short as I had it last time, but I'm still happy with it. Collin (tanner's friend) is in my gym class and has P-Day here with me, so I see him around a lot. Same with Erik, I see him at random places throughout the day which is fun. And Collin and Erik are both in my building so I can go see them at nights if I want. I'm not sure if I've told you whose in my district yet , I can't remember so I'll just tell ya again. It's me and Elder Evert, Elder Light and Elder Faran, Elder Soderquist and Elder Su'A, Elder Crossley and Elder Loe, and Sister McDonald and Sister Salway. And no, Dad, she's not heir to Ray Croc's fortune. We quote movies and stuff a lot at night which kind of depresses me ahaha. Obviously not really but when we say Arrested Development quotes every day I can't believe I'm going two years without that. Thank you for the Mission President's letter- I was wondering if that was ever going to come. Maybe since it's the Philippines it takes like 3 months to get home... probably no postal mail home while I'm over there but we'll see what happens. I keep wondering what Christmas is going to be like here... better not be any classes. And I'm not getting too excited for cafeteria turkey on Thanksgiving.

Alright, well I'm gonna go get my wash out and head back to the Residence Halls. So I may write you guys a letter if I think of more stuff to say, but I think that's about it for now. Keep sending me letters, packages, and DearElders. I enjoy being the guy in the district with the most DearElders every night so keep it up. Oh and tell Callie to keep sending me news about the outside world. I like that a lot. Sports, news, media.. whatever ya know. Oh- and Dad my companion is in love with Glenn Beck and hates Obama, so I told him you guys would get along.

Love you guys, and I'll talk to ya next week

-Elder White (Austin... still.)

1st letter

Heyo. How's CT? You guys are back, right? So ... MTC. Oh- thank you for that package! That was way cool of you guys, but I already feel like I'm gaining weight fast in here haha so send some nutritious stuff if you can. Then again anything that's safe for a 4 - day box ride to the MTC can't really be nutritious. Um I don't remember much of the questions you guys sent me. Keep using DearElder- I get those letters every night so I can read em before I go to bed. Just tell me stuff about what's going on in everyone's life. You feel so cut off from civilization in here, despite being 5 seconds away from it. So some basic info- my companion is Elder Evert. He's from outside Sacramento- about my height and stuff but definitely much more built. He played Offensive Line for his high school. Um, There's 10 of us in my district- two sisters. 28 of us came in at once going to Philippines, only four of us are going to Baguio though. So that makes it even crazier that I'm in Faber's mission. After the third day I felt like my head was going to explode from all the Tagalog they throw at us. It's crazy though how much has changed since day one though. The teachers only speak in Tagalog really, so day one I had no idea what they were saying but by day 3 I can almost always understand at least what they want. We learned to pray and bear our testimonies in Tagalog by Saturday... it's tricky. All the adjectives come first and then the subject is in the back of the sentence, so it is opposite of english and spanish and what not. So that's the biggest stumbling block to overcome. Like instead of the church is true it's totoo ang Simbihan (true the church). the ng word is used so often, but that's spoken like 'nung' and mga makes anything plural. Like in english we had an 's' to the end of a word, but in Tagalog they tack on mga before it. So instead of friends it's mga kaibigan. Oh, and mga is pronounced like 'munga'.

So yeah, how's everyone doing? Send me some DearElders about what's going on. I got a reaally bad cold already and last night was the worst, but today I'm starting to get over it. We went to the temple today and did a session, it was really nice that early in the morning. Good start to the day. Oh, but because my companion forgot something and had to run back downstairs we came in last of the group instead of first as we were and sat alone on the back of the girl's side because the guys was all filled up, ha. Oh, and on Thursday we had to walk off campus down to the BYU Health Center because my companion needed to pick up medication because he got a virus the first day. So it was pretty crazy being off campus, and feeling like an actual missionary. It becomes so common seeing all the nametags and stuff here, so you obviously don't feel special, ya know. But being even a hundred feet away from that it feels like you get different looks, which is a really good feeling. Makes you feel rare, ya know? Oh- my companions really good too haha. I definitely got lucky because there are some loooonies in here. This one kid talks like a bad actor at all times.. it's very strange. And just a lot of weirdos. Um, my zone leaders are way cool, ones from New Zealand, talks like Brit en Jermaine. Um, don't have much time left. We only get 30 minutes here, and can only write home once a week. Well we can write home whenever technically but they ask us only on P-Day, so that's what it'll be. Best way to describe the MTC though is days are long, weeks are short. During the day you feel like you've been up for 48 hours, but when you look back it doesn't feel so long. I'm still getting into it , so it still feels like I've been here for years but that'll change soon I know. Oh! I saw Erik and Cody already. Erik is just a couple floors above me so I seen him some nights, which is really good. But all in all it definitely hasn't been bad here. Not nearly as hard as people were saying it was, but everyone has different experiences. You get hardly any personal study time, only about an hour a day if you can manage that but I managed to finish First Nephi by Saturday which I was happy about. I like marking up the scriptures. Alright well I'm about out of time, so just keep sending me dear elders and I'll send you guys another letter by mail today.

Love ya guys, and tell everyone to write me

-Austin

(I'm not going to call myself Elder White through email just yet.) (I hear it enough during the day, I like to remember I have a first name)