WOW its been 3 weeks in the MTC already, thats crazy!! It seems like it has gone by so fast and yet it feels like I have been here for so long. Like I said before, the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days, but I am so blessed to be here right now. Sometimes it is hard when all the days seem the same, or at least very similar, but I am trying to remember how blessed I am to be here everyday. It is a truly amazing place. Thousands of 18 and 19 year old kids give up 2 years out of there lives, learn a new language (some) and travel to a place that they have never been before. But, we all do this for a reason and that reason is, we have something so amazing, so awesome, and so great that we want to share it with the whole world. In Matthew it says, "Go ye therefore and teach ALL nations and Baptizing them ALL in the name of the Father and the Son" (not direct quote, sorry). It takes a lot of faith, but we are definitley not alone. We have so many resources, pray and scripture study has helped me so much. I have prayed for strength and help, then I read the Book of Mormon and I always feel so much better. If you guys aren't reading the Book of Mormon everyday, I would recommend and encourage you to do so! These last 3 weeks I have realized how important the Book of Mormon is, along with the spirit it is the biggest tool in our conversion and our investigators conversion. The Book of Mormon means more to me now than it ever has before. I know it is true. Kabalo ako nga matuod ang Libro ni Mormon!
It has been a great week here at the MTC! Not easy for sure, but still great!
There were a lot of changes during this last week. More than half of our zone left for the philippines! It was kind of sad, we got pretty close to those guys, but I know that they are going to be awesome missionaries. The ones that left were all speaking cebuano (there isnt enough people learning Ilonggo to create an Ilonggo zone) and before they left we did this zone activity where we sang a hymn, half of us sang in Ilonggo and the other half of the zone sang in cebuano. It was such a cool experience. The spirit was so strong, even though I didn't know any of what they were singing or basically anything I was singing either. The spirit is what teaches us and helps us and others improve, not having perfect language is okay, as long as the spirit is there. So along with all of them leaving, we got new Zone and District leaders. On Sunday I was made District Leader. I love my district so much and I am excited to be with them for 3 more weeks. I was kind of overwhelmed when I found out, but my branch president assured me that the only reason I was called was because the Lord wanted me. I am looking forward to improving as a missionary and Improving as a district.
Another crazy thing that happened this week was from monday at 5pm to tuesday at 5pm we did what we call an "English Fast", we went a full 24 hours without speaking English. We only spoke Ilonggo for a whole day, it was crazy. It was so hard to communicate, but I feel like we learned a lot about what we need to learn and what we already know. I realized that I do not know how to say much outside of gospel topics. It was a long 24 hours! It helped though. After we did this for a whole day, we caught ourselves talking a lot more Ilonggo throughout regular days, which is really good because it is something that our teachers encourage us to do as much as possible and doing that english fast helped us learn how to communicate better. We are getting better, but I'm pretty sure I'm still using the grammar very wrong. The grammar has been a hard thing to get adjusted to, you are suppose to always put the verb first, it is weird! So like the sentence kabalo ako nga matuod ang Libro ni Mormon translates into know I that true the Book of Mormon. It is weird. I feel like I have improved, but I can still work harder and get better.
Yesterday we had an awesome night class, and I am super glad that we did because i had not been feeling well and it made my day a lot better. So last night both Ilonggo districts went over to T3 (one of the new buildings) and looked at the painting of Christ talking to his disciples. We had a really deep talk about how we are representatives of Christ right now. We talked about how important our calling is and the weight of our calling is. The worth of souls is great in the sight of God and we have a responsibility to bring them closer to Jesus Christ. The teachers talked to us about how they have kinda felt a sense of casualness among both districts. They challenged us to make the most out of these last 3 weeks because there are people in the Philippines waiting for this message. It was such an amzing experience. I have the best teachers; Brother Mariano, Brother Adamson and Brother Shumway. I have learned so much from them. As I have got into a routine in the Mtc I have kinda got relaxed and I am so glad for that wake up call yesterday. There is a Utah Football quote that says "All in or in the way!" and that is what I am going to try my best to do is be all in.
It was so great to hear about everything that has been going on this week. It sounds like you guys have had an awesome week! Please continue to update me on everything going on! Cheer super loud for me today! Go Utes!!!!!! Hope you all have a great week!
Palangga ta ka! (I love you)
Halong
Elder Degen
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| Elder Horton (friend from school) and Elder Degen |
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| Sporting his Utes attire in Provo |
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