Kumusta po!
I've been here only about two days and if I could describe the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in one word, I would say busy. Our schedule is very packed and we have to plan VERY carefully in order to complete everything we need in the day. Even for today on P-Day (which is on Fridays) we have a packed schedule and places to go.
When I got here Wednesday we were brought to our residence hall to bring our bags into our rooms. When we got there, none of our keys worked.. and they still don't. So as of right now, all we do is have one of the elder's luggage tag stuck into the doorway so it doesn't lock. All our stuff is up for grabs since anyone can access our room. Immediately after that, we were sent over to our class where we were bombarded with Tagalog. Our teachers spoke nothing but Tagalog until they decided to talk about "dressing rules." Right after that, they continued into Tagalog. I've been studying Tagalog for three months or so before I left and it was still very stressful. They gave us around 3 pages of paper and said, "all of these words and phrases need to be memorized in 10 days." Though, I have studied it, all the "church language" was very new to me and I was very unprepared. After going to class, we went to a short devotional, which was pretty cool. After that we continued to different class with fake investigators that they acted like were real, but later we were told from some elders that have been here longer that they were fake. Around 9:00, we head to our residence hall and then at 9:30 it is quiet time, so no one is supposed to be socializing in the halls. It seems like most missionaries weren't super compliant with this rule. My dorm was though. There's six of us in there. There's me and my companion Elder Witt, Elder Etcheverry and Elder Willis, and Elder Palmer and Elder Williams. We seem to have a pretty cool group of guys. Everyone is super friendly to each other and we talk about how we're basically all Kasama (companions) even though we're technically not. Anyways, we're supposed to go "lights out" by 10:30, but we went a couple minutes over, until about 10:37-ish. It took so much time to get ready for bed and write in our journals and do everything we needed to. During the day we struggled to find time for scriptures. At home I was even able to read more scriptures than this first day. Oh also throughout the day we had a little orange sticker on our name tags to show that we're new and basically all the missionaries sarcastically told us "Welcome to the MTC!" really sarcastically to make fun of us. you know the next day we immediately took them off. I threw mine in my journal as well.
The next day we woke up at 6:15 even though we're only required to wake up at 6:30, even at that point there did seem to be a lot of other people up and the showers and sinks seemed kinda crowded. Luckily, we were just before the rush and didn't have to wait in a line. After that, we ate breakfast and then went to classes until lunch. Then during part of our lunch time and a little in between class time we went to the MTC store and got a bunch of the supplies that were mission specific that they had ready for us. I also bought a folder to keep all of the papers we got organized, a nice pen since I only brought average ones, and also all of us got this attachment on our belts that we put our ID cards and room keys (if I happened to have one) on. It makes us look "legit." Also later after some more classes we met with our branch Presidency and got district leaders and stuff after each of us had a short interview with them. Elder Willis from my room got called as our district leader and we joke around and tell him how amazing he is and call him Sir Elder Willis and stuff which is pretty funny. He hates it. We also say "po" in every Tagalog sentence we say to him because it's a sign of respect and politeness but to us it's more of a joke like "your majesty." The meeting went on until like 9:25. We were supposed to get there 25 minutes earlier, but then we also had to go to the information desk to check up on our keys.. which they still don't have. After that we went back to our residence hall, got ready for bed, wrote in our journal, and read some more scriptures since we didn't have much time during the day. Again, we went over until like 10:46-ish this time.
Today, we've basically done two things so far. We got up and showered and ate breakfast, then we went to the temple, which always takes a long time. Those activities have taken up most of our day. After the temple, we went and ate lunch and then went into our room to change out of our nicer clothes" but before changing we all took a bunch of pictures just to send in our emails. Excuse me if they're not the greatest quality but we simply don't have time to take "good" pictures I guess. Also the MTC has been super hot compared to my air conditioned home. I'm sure that the church clothes don't help much either. I'm super sweaty all the time, I'm sure the Philippines will be much worse. The rest of the day we still need to wash our clothes, go to the gym, make flashcards, read scriptures, and read part of the Missionary handbook or our "white bible." And that's pretty much it. I've also be able to help most of my "companions" with basic Tagalog things that don't have to do with church related things, I still need to learn those myself. So that's mostly it for what's happened so far.
Overall it's been a pretty good experience and I wish we just had more time. We're constantly busy and always in a rush. The good thing about it though is that it doesn't give me time to think too much about home. I'm sure I love and miss my family more than most of these missionaries, because my family is the best. The painfully long and packed schedule on some level is a complete blessing. It keeps me distracted. So it's been pretty fun though too, I love the guys I'm with Elder Etcheverry and Palmer are from Washington and the others like myself are all from Utah. Around 1/3 of all the missionaries in the MTC are going to the Philippines as well. So this hasn't been easy but I know it's the right thing to do. I love my family enough that I'm willing to leave them for two years so that other families can be together as well. So this whole experience so far is a busy blessing. See all of you in dalawang taong (two years).
Some of the pictures below are of us taking pictures of each other, pictures of our shoes, and a picture with my "real" companion Elder Witt. That's the one with just me and him.
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