Sorry for taking so long to email, we were like the only ones who didn't get a P day the first week, but its alright...i guess.
Hello everyone!! Its so great to hear from some of you! I love you all so much.
Wow this week(well 8 days) has been such an amazing experience, but also very long and tiring. It has been quite and adjustment from what I was doing a couple of weeks ago. I won't lie and say its been easy and great the whole time. At times it has been very difficult, but the good times and the spirit make up for any moment that i have had a fear or doubt. Within 30 minutes of arriving at the MTC I was placed into a class where they immidately (this email is going to be rough without spell check haha) started speaking a language to me which i have never heard of. We have learned so much in a week though, its crazy! I went from basically not knowing a single word to being able to teach a lesson in ilonggo (hiligaynon, the teachers call it ilonggo so i will too) without any notes, thats crazy. No way I could do that without the help of my heavenly father. Prayer is such an amazing tool and we should be using it as much as we can.
Sorry this email is probably going to be all over the place, I don't really know how to tell you everything that I want to tell you in an organized way. I'll just try to go through my 8 days here at the MTC and explain in the best detail that i can. The first day, after class we went into a big devotional with all the new missionaries. To start the devotional we sung The army of Armies of Helaman song and instead of singing "we will be the lords missionaries" we sung "we are now the Lord's missionaries" in that moment I felt an overwhelming peace and happiness come over me. I am now the Lord's missionary and I am called to bring the world his truth, there is so much power behind that, it is amazing! A mission, as hard as it has been and will be, is something that I know I am suppose to being doing at this time in my life! Don't ever let me forget that!
The second day was probably the longest day, it is amazing how much you can get done in a day though. We went to a lot of class on the second day and a lot of other oreintation kind of stuff. We were told in class on last Thursday that we would be teaching a lesson in ilonggo the next day, I dont think I have ever been so scared! I didn't understand how I was suppose to teach in a language that I Don't even know. The first lesson that we taught our pretend investigator, did not go well, we had everything scripted out and written down what we were going to say and if he had a question we would just say Oo (yes in ilonggo) or (maayo which is good in ilonggo), but as we continued to learn more and practice more, we got so much better. Yesterday we taught him and i didnt use any notes! I'm certain that my grammar was horrible and I pronounced most things wrong, but as i have been taught many times here in the MTC, we are not the teachers, the spirit is. Knowing that we are not the teachers and the spirit is, brings me so much peace and comfort. No way i could teach anybody if I didn't have the spirit. I apologize that this email is all over the place.
My companion is Elder Moore and he is from centerville Utah. He is such an awesome guy. We are getting along nicely. I love my district so much, we have so much fun together! Like the second day of class Elder Stohl (one of the elders in our district) asked our teacher brother Mariano how to say "sauce" and we came up with this saying "kami magsabor" which in english means "we will sauce", it's really dumb, but also really funny. We say it all the time and even got our teacher to say it a few times. And we even convinced some lady to let us so put kami magsabor on a t shirt ( I will send pictures when we get them). We have exercise time everyday at 10 and we love playing four square as a district, it is so fun!)
Sundays are probably the most relaxed day here, well other than p day. On Sunday we wake up at 6:30 like usual, eat breakfast, go to preisthood, go to sacrament meeting, class (Sunday school), in the afternoon we got to go on a walk to the temple, and in the evening we have a devotional. That sounds like a lot, but that is so relaxed compared to a normal day in the MTC. The talk that we listened to on sunday was an old MTC devotional talk by Elder Bednar called the character of christ. I encourage everyone to listen to it. It helped me so much and I know that it can help you guys!
It has been so awesome to be able to see some friends from school, Jared Horton, Hayden Prows, Zach B, and many more that you guys don't really know. I see Jared almost everyday (we haven't taken a picture yet, but we will), his classroom is on the same floor as mine. He is loving it. The first time we went down to teach a lesson with a practice investigator, he walked me and elder moore down there then knocked on the door before we were ready and then ran away. It was funny, later in the week I did the same thing to him haha.
Ever since Sunday the days are going by much faster. Everyone that had been there for a few weeks kept telling us just make it to sunday and it will start going by much faster and that is so true. I think that I am finally starting to get into the routine of being a missionary.
Oh and on monday for dinner they had TACO BELL, like actual TACO BELL, it was amazing, I'm pretty sure it was an answer to a prayer! The food here is just okay and that's about the only way i can put it. Some things are pretty good and others are just okay. So I have at least one bowl of cereal a meal (Josh Brown was right).
Tuesday night we had a devotional and Elder Neil L Anderson came and gave an amazing talk. We are so blessed as missionaries to be able to hear these apostles give such amazing talks. Elder Anderson talked about how pray is such an amazing tool and we should use it every moment that we can. He also said that the lord we never leave his missionaries without help, and that the Lord is preparing people for us in our missions. Our teachers have been showing us pictures of their missions in the philippines and it gets me so excited to go there. My teacher Brother Mariano served his mission in Iloilo, he said he loved it so much.
Kabalo ako nga pulong sang dios ang libro ni mormom. ( I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God)
It was so great to finally email you guys! It was awesome to hear from some of you! I would love to hear from all of you, every week, please!
I love you all so much!
Halong (take care)
Palangga (love) Elder Degen
 |
| Elder Degen and companion Elder Moore |
 |
| District |
No comments:
Post a Comment