Typical Day at the MTC

Before we get started, this weeks shout out goes to Elder Caina because he is awesome and I get to see him all the time here.  It is so sad that he is leaving for Louisiana this week! 

So much random and cool stuff happened this week so here is an info download:

This week's fun fact has been brought to us by the fabulous Sister Watkins, who taught us this week that ewoks (yes, those lovely furry creatures from Star Wars) speak Tagalog!  So, to the family who thinks I am not fluent in any languages, I hope you now know that I can speak four (English, Spanish, Tagalog, and Ewokian).  This week's funny story is provided by Sister Dillman.  On Thursday, Sister Dillman woke up and shared some very comforting news with me.  Sister Dillman and I were the only people in her zombie apocalypse dream (translation: we were the only people who survived the zombie apocalypse).  This made me more hopeful for the future.  Sorry to all of you out there who willl not survive.  This week's interesting moment occured on Tuesday.  Who was the devotional speaker?  Elder Robert C. Gay.  Yeah, I know him.  He is awesome.  He talked about Connecticut.  I was like, "Oh yeah, I lived there."  Also, Sister Foster and I did a missionary lesson via Skype this week with a Tagalog speaker currently living in Malaysia!  It was so cool!  And we all understood each other really well!  In not so fun news, the stomach plague is going around the MTC.  Only four out of the nine missionaries in my district made it to class last night.  I will not succumb to the disease...and last but not least, TRAVEL PLANS, BABY!!!  I am on my way to the Philippines on July 1st!  Salt Lake City to San Fran to Tokyo to Manila to Laoag!  Asia, I am coming for you!

It has been requested that I describe the typical day at the MTC...

At 6:00 Sister Foster's alarm goes off.  She immediately greets us all with "magandang umaga" after which I turn on the light.  We get ready and head to our classroom at 7:00 where we sing a hymn and pray with the discrict.  We then go to breakfast and then have three hours of class.  During class we have time to teach our investigators (if we have an appointment) (Our investigators are our teachers who act like teachees from their own missions.  It is super realistic and we only teach in Tagalog), we also have companionship study, grammar instruction, and we learn about teaching the gospel better.  Morning class is so long.  We then have an hour of personal study where we study about what we are teaching our investigators.  Next we have lunch and then personal language study for an hour.  We also have an hour of TALL which is a language learning program on the computer...we speak to it and it speaks to us.  We have an hour of gym, too, and then usually dinner.  After dinner, we have three more hours of class and then companionship planning for a half hour before we head home.  There are a few permutations to this schedule but this is basically it.  Each might we go to bed at 10:30. 

Between the 6 hours of classroom instruction and the three hours of study time, days at the MTC can be pretty exhausting.  I never knew what it felt like to be spiritually exhaused, too.  I know that the days will be even more tiring when I get to the Philippines, but I can easy say that I have never learned so much in such a short period of time.  One of our teachers, Brother Langer, has promised us that through our diligence in studying and always speaking Tagalog, we can be fluent when we leave next Monday.  I want to be fluent and I know that through my hard work and the assistance of God, I can be fluent upon my arrival to the Philippines. 

Totoo po ang Akalt ni Mormon at totoo ang Biblia.  Sa pamamagitan ng pananampalataya ni Jesucrito, puede po natin na bumalik sa Diyos.  Tunay po ang kaloob ng mga wika at sobrang mahalaga ang Espiritu Santo.  Mapagmahal po ang Diyos.  Buhay po si Jesucristo.  Ito po ang patotoo ko.

Mahal ko kayo!  Mahal ko lahat!