The Manila Mission Training Center

((From the balance of July 2013 letters))

((Still in the MTC)) July 17... This week we're teaching two new investigators (both our teachers) and it's going pretty well. My kasama and I have a goal to ditch our written script for lessons next week and just teach with whatever Tagalog we know. The training wheels are coming off! This week started out super rough. Our first lesson with Sister Abigail went really poorly and my kasama and I got super discouraged. Luckily we have really great teachers that helped us a ton, and it's only gotten better from there. We thought Sister Abigail would be the easier investigator, but it turns out Brother Anthony has been, and we're always really excited to teach him. The missionaries who came in 2 weeks before me went proselyting this week (so that will be me in 2 weeks) and they were all really jazzed about it, which made me really excited to get out as well. It's been raining/thunderstorming almost every day which I love.

The batch of Filipino missionaries that just left on Wednesday loved Sister Jensen and I so much because of our American-ness. It was great. This group of sisters came up to us really timidly and said "Um.. excuse me... can I get your e-mail?" and we said "sure!" and when they got it, they practically skipped away giggling and waving the piece of paper with our e-mails on it in the air. It definitely made our day. The elders all wanted pictures with us before we left and they drew us pictures and it was so sweet. These people are really amazing, and I'm really excited to go serve them and get out of this MTC. Ha.

Today a huge new batch of missionaries came and we helped welcome them. There are missionaries here going to Taiwan, Singapore, India, and Hong Kong! And the Philippines of course. It's super crowded here now though. Welcoming the new ones was so fun, but so weird to think we aren't the new ones anymore.. Being at the MTC is the weirdest. It feels like this is the only life I've ever lived, the only place I've ever been, and like these are the only people I've ever known... I can't explain it. I love (almost) all the people here, and it'll be sad to say good-bye to a lot of them when we leave the MTC.

((July 25th 2013)) 
I'm getting a little more used to the food, and the fruit here is awesome. If I don't like what they're serving I just eat rice and whatever soup they have that day, so it's all good. The best stuff they have here are these vegetable pancake things that are delightful, the breaded fried fish, and the soft serve. Ha.((of course they have soft serve, her favorite treat ever)) Last week I tried Milkfish, the national fish of the Philippines, which was actually super tasty. I'll get to my health in a moment. :) We don't really get a chance to adjust to the heat and humidity because the MTC is sobra airconditioned. My kasama  ((Companion)) and I sit outside a lot because it's freezing inside, but we're always in the shade. I sleep super well most nights because my brain is so tired, and the beds are super nice. Luckily, we didn't get any new roommates when the new batch came in, so there's still just the 4 of us in our room. I haven't really learned much about the Manila mission actually. I know they get to go to the temple once a transfer, which is great. The Quezon City missionaries are super jealous of us because we have the island, so that's cool. That's pretty much all I know... Oh I heard from missionaries that went proselyting last week and the week before that nobody wears clothes, so that's interesting... I can't believe it's already our turn to go proselyting! I'm excited, but I'm really sobra nervous because of the language. Most missionaries will just make you pray and testify, and I think I can do that... at least I hope I can!

Alright so here's what happened this week:

On Sunday I got all kinds of barfy, which was sobra hindi mabuti. My kasama and I had to miss a DVD of an Elder Holland talk, which was sad. Sister Borg and Sister Willson (i'll send pictures in a jiff) were so helpful and they got the nurse/priesthood to come help me, and I was all better by Monday. There's been a bug going around the MTC, so we're cracking down on hand washing. On Sunday morning we had a leadership council meeting and one of the new district leaders in the Filipino branch says "there are no problems in our district, except most of the elders are more comfortable using water when we poop" in front of everybody. I was dying. The MTC president kindly told them that they are missionaries now, and they will have to adjust, and when they get home, they can chew gum as much as they want. Hahaha. 

This Tuesday was the best day of my time here ((in the MTC)). In the morning there was a fire drill that wasn't actually a drill and my teacher says "okay, nobody panic, what is the Tagalog word for fire? It's sumog! And what do you say when there's a fire? Tulong! Now we can evacuate" So if we died in that fire, at least we would have known the Tagalog words for what killed us! hahaha It was just a small fire on the second floor of one of the buildings, it wasn't serious. That afternoon we taught our investigator, Brother Anthony, and it was incredible. We've been teaching him very slowly about the Atonement, repentance, forgiveness and the symbolism of baptism. Anyways, we were teaching him about the Holy Ghost and binyag (baptism), and it was the first time I've felt the spirit really strong in a lesson. My kasama was killing it in the Tagalog department and when I said "Brother Anthony," to start the baptism invitation, I almost started crying because of how strong the spirit was, and he committed to baptism! Holla! Then he said "maganda ang buhay walang kasalanan", and translated "life is beautiful when we can be forgiven of sin". How neat is that?! My kasama and I came out of that appointment ridiculously happy, it felt so great!! Now we're not sure what to teach him though... haha. I know it's just a fake investigator, but it makes me pumped for the real thing. That night we had a really great devotional from Elder Ardern of the seventy where he taught us about the power we have as missionaries, and it was very motivational. One of my favorite things he and his wife shared was a quote that was something like "Heavenly Father entrusts a testimony to those who will share it". That's pretty neat. A testimony is a gift, and we have a responsibility to share it! Lucky a mission is a pretty easy place to do that. Ha.

In the new batch of missionaries that came, there are these three Elders from Fiji and Tonga who are SOOOOO good at volleyball and it's so fun to play with them. That's another reason I haven't been running. They let me set for them and I ran a one with one of the elders, and I had forgotten just how wonderful it feels when you set someone a quick set and they just hammer it. It was awesome-az. Oh p.s. I'm picking up on all the Aussie slang here. They just add 'az' to the end of everything like Utahns add way to the beginning of everything, and it sounds like they're swearing, but they're really not, and it's great. It's great-az. 

Mahal mahal mahal kita,

Sister Jones

                                                                       My Kasama!!

                                                                      The Lehi District
my district ((not in order of the picture)): Sister Jensen, Sister Atuake, Sister Moimoi, Sister Feinga, Sister Faka'osi, Elder Proudfit, Elder Lang Siu, Elder Jo, and Elder Seau

((Aug 2 letter))

 On Tuesday we had a good-bye devotional for the departing class, and it was sad! At the beginning we sang songs as classes, and the Tongans sang a song of their own, and it was beautiful! Someone here said you will find no more beautiful voices than islander voices, and after being here I'd have to agree! The departing class, who we were really close to, sang How Great Thou Art, and they sang the first verse in English, second in Tongan, third in Samoan and fourth in Tagalog. The reaction of the Filipino missionaries to the class singing in Tagalog was priceless. They were so happy they were literally bouncing, and they all started taking pictures and crying and it was adorable.

 

I saw my first hunstman spider this week!! It was in the gym and it was just a baby one, it was probably a bit bigger than a silver dollar, but it ran around all #@%!**# crazy! Forgive my inappropriate missionary language, but there's really no other way to describe it... Haha yikes.

Proselyting was..... I don't really know how to describe it. My companion was named Sister Cava from Fiji, she had been in the field a grand total of 4 weeks! We had a member with us too, and she saved us! We taught a less-active family first, two adorable little girls greeted us, and even though they really didn't have anything world-wise, they were so happy, and so excited to see the missionaries. We taught them and their grandparents about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon and about repentance. My kasama just had me testify and pray, and it went pretty well. These people really didn't have any possessions besides their clothes, but they did have a picture of Christ and of the Salt Lake temple, which made me super happy and melted my heart. I really can't describe the living condition of these people because there is nothing to compare it to in Utah, but their whole 'house' could have easily fit inside my bedroom. It made me really grateful for my life. We also taught a member about missionary work and reading the scriptures, and she was really nice, and she helped me with the language when I tried to talk. On the jeepney ride back, I tried to place a Book of Mormon but.... no luck. When I talked to the lady I could tell she felt uncomfortable and she would answer all my Tagalog in English, and she didn't want the Book of Mormon. My kasama said next time to just give it to her and not let her give it back, so I'll do that! I was bummed she didn't take it, but I was happy I tried! After the day was over, I didn't really want to come back to the MTC because it's so stressful here, but I was also really worried about actually living in Manila for 18 months. I'm hoping it will click and I'll fall in love with this place like everyone else who comes here, but it didn't exactly click on Wednesday. I don't want to sound complain-y, I'm just being honest.. I've laughed a lot this week, and that has really helped me because I do love to laugh.

((August 9 Letter)) 

I leave this Wednesday sometime in the morning to go to my mission, my P-day will be Mondays now, so I don't think you'll hear from me until next Monday, then the Mondays after that.

It was hot and humid both times we've gone proselyting (it was hotter this time) but it definitely wasn't unbearable, this is their colder season, so most of the time it's not too bad. We also always have the lovely air conditioned MTC to come back to, so we'll see how it is without that. They sell plastic shoes everywhere here that all the missionaries wear that are supposedly super comfy, so I'll probably get myself some of those.

A typical day at the MTC is just 16 hours of studying. We teach one investigator (our teachers) per day, or we'll teach a less-active, or a referral or a former investigator. We do a computer language program called TALL, we do grammar lessons with our teachers, talk about the lessons and how to teach them, and just study. We also have gym every day. They also give us buttery sweet delicious snacks every 2 hours so we're all getting fat. Apparently that's the idea since most missionaries lose weight in the field.

 

I don't really know what to write about this week! On Sunday the MTC president's wife pulled my companion and I aside and just asked us how proselyting was. She said it's really hard at first, but if we open our hearts, we will come to love it here and we won't want to leave at the end of our mission. She seriously spoke all the thoughts of our hearts, it was incredible and she is the sweetest lady. She looks like she could be the next relief society general president, and I wish I could just take her with me everywhere I go. On Tuesday we had a devotional by Elder Larry Echo Hawk (neatest name ever) from the Philippines area presidency, which was really good.

Proselyting this week was good. We went to the Quezon City North Mission, and my companion was named Sister Jones! Ha. So it was Sister Jones, Sister Jensen, Sister Faka'osi and me in a group. We tried to teach 2 people that weren't home then taught 2 less actives. Both of them lived on the 'mountain' which is just this area in the mission that is on the side of the mountain, and it's a lot more province-y than Manila. The first lesson we taught was difficult because the kids were noisy and dogs kept coming in and out of the place they lived, but I still felt like the sister was happy we visited her. The second lady we visited was named Maria. She was in her 60's and she was so sweet. She wouldn't let us take off our shoes in her house, and when we were kind of hesitant to speak, she said (in English) "Don't be shy, just DO YOUR BEST" and she was so encouraging. She talked about the blessings that had come in her life through faith and she was emotional about it, and you could feel that she really has a testimony and a lot of knowledge about the gospel. The only reason she doesn't come to church is that it is so far away and she can't afford to get there. She was such a nice lady though. It started raining super hard when we were visiting her and it was so loud against the tin roof, but I was so glad to see that the roof didn't leak on her, and I thought the sound was beautiful. We took two jeepneys and a tricycle to get back to the church, and Sister Jones and I had to sit side-saddle on the motorcycle on the tricycle, which was sketchy, but it made me think "Holy moley I'm a missionary in the Philippines right now! I'm actually here! How many people get to ride side-saddle in a skirt on a tricycle up a mountain in the Philippines in their lives?" So that was pretty neat. Sister Jones was so nice, I wish she could be my trainer! Ha. I can't believe I'll meet my trainer in only a couple days! I'm really excited/nervous. Sister Jones told us the first couple weeks are really hard, because you don't understand anyone and you're getting into the swing of things and getting used to living here, but she said once you get over the first bit, it just gets better and better.

I will be sad to leave the MTC because of how clean and air-conditioned and nice it is, and because I've become really close with a lot of the sisters here, and many of them are not going to Manila. Pero, I'm excited to start doing actual missionary work and start bringing the good news of the gospel to people's lives!

 

Pics!!

((I forgot to add the photos of her district - the Lehi District))

hat she sent us))

I'm Official...

((When Sister Jones flew out of Salt Lake City headed to the Manila Missionary Training Center she had not yet received her tags.  She felt disappointed that she would have to travel without them.  She received them as she reported to the MTC on July 5.  When asked about it and what they said the following statement was her response. By the way "Sister" in Tagalog is Kapatid na babae!!))

My tag says Sister Jones and I love it! Getting the tag was the best thing. 

 

The sister I met on Facebook did actually turn out to be my companion! So we're Sister Jensen and Sister Jones and people here love calling us the Sister J's. I love my companion, we have a ton in common, such as she also loves Singin' in the Rain, Great Gatsby, and Fantastic Mr. Fox and that's really all I need to know about a person to like them! But seriously she's really sweet and I think we work well together. In the last couple days I've come out of my shell a lot more and gotten to know more people. I loooove the Australian sisters here. They're all so nice and super funny.We always sit with them at meals and one of them named Sister Borg, who is the sweetest thing, teaches a way intense work-out class during gym and it's awesome. All the Tongans just speak in Tongan to each other so we don't know what they are laughing about most of the time.

  

I can't believe it's only been a week here. I feel like it's already been 18 months!!The MTC the first few days was probably the worst place on the planet. Haha.  I have had way too much weird food here. When we just had regular cereal for breakfast I almost cried for joy. We have rice every single meal and lots of weird stuff. Being here eating filipino food has made me seriously consider becoming a vegetarian for the rest of my mission. We had breaded fried fish one day and I smothered it with vinegar and I was so happy. One day we had these vegetable pancake things for dinner that were super tasty. The veggies and soups and fruit are always good, but the meat is way scary 75% of the time. Yesterday I ate a fried fish with the head, eyes, and skin all intact. I'm pretty proud of myself. Once you dug around a bit for the actual meat it was pretty good. The Tang (do you know what Tang is?) here is unbelievably good. It's my favorite thing here by far. (I miss your cooking quite a lot!!) ((I did not put that there)) 

Tagalog is kicking my butt. The grammar is tricky and all the words sound the same, but I know I'll get it eventually. The very first full day we had here,after having like 2 language classes, they made us teach an investigator named Brother Jay who wouldn't speak any English to us. It was awful and I just wanted to quit right there. After the first lesson my kasama ((companion)) and I started writing out a full script in Tagalog of what we would say and it went much better.  We always made sure to testify and pray for him. We taught him every day and on the fifth lesson (yesterday) we invited him to be baptized on August 10 and he said yes!! Holla! After that lesson we had a 'first investigator review' and guess who our teacher was? Brother Jay! I knew he worked for the MTC, I just didn't know he would be our teacher, so it was awkward at first, but he gave us really good feedback.  We start teaching two new investigators today. All in Tagalog. Our teacher speaks half in Tagalog and half in English, so it's not too bad. It's pretty similar to the way they taught us in Italy, we just only learn gospel vocabulary. ha. It took about 3 days to get over jetlag, we just had to be really good about going to bed on time and not taking naps and it wasn't too bad.  

In classes we learn the language with our teacher and with a computer program. We also talk a lot about how to teach and what our purpose is, and it's really helpful. It's been good to learn that we can't teach according to what we as missionaries want to say, we have to teach according to what the investigators need. I'm so excited to actually teach, I just need to learn this language!!! I think all the time "this would be 8 million times easier in English". A stateside call is looking real nice right about now.

So we had a devotional with a member of the 8th quorum of the seventy on Tuesday (which was great), and we were going to have an MTC choir and guess who they called to be the choir director? Sister Jones! Haha I was trying to channel all my inner Sister Emmer to lead the choir (which included everyone there). We sang 'We Are All Enlisted" and since I think it's part of Filipino/Tongan culture to sing super loud it sounded great. There are maybe 18 missionaries here out of over a hundred that are American, so it's interesting to be the minority. Ha.

 

Oh I forgot to mention that my kasama and I are "Sister Training Leaders" for the group of missionaries learning Tagalog that came in the same day as us. I'm still not really sure what that means.

 

The best part of the MTC is all the wonderful missionaries I'm meeting, and the activities we do that help us feel the spirit. On Sunday we watched the Joseph Smith movie and I've never felt it so much! The best part of my week was when we went to the temple on Wednesday. It hit me while I was there that I was actually in Manila! The ordinance rooms there are like the Jordan River Temple, but they only hold 30 people tops. My kasama and I got to be escorts for two filipina sisters who were getting their endowment, which was a really neat experience. When we came out to the lobby we saw the cutest little girl waiting to be sealed to her family, and it reminded me why I'm here and how I can help people.

The Journey Begins.. no really The Journey Begins...

((Ok, so here is the Disclaimer... This is Raeleigh's Mom.  I told her I would update her blog with stuff from her emails and letters if it was appropriate.  Unless there is a double Parenthesis, these are her words.  ((double Parenthesis)) = Mom, single or no parenthesis = Raeleigh. Hope you all enjoy.))

 I'm in the Philippines!! It still feels very surreal, even though I can see the temple ((Manila)) across the street. I traveled over with two other sisters and four elders. I lost my waterbottle in Seattle ((the $90 one with the filter doodad, and the laser light bug zapper)) but no worries, I think they give us a new one here. On the flight to Japan we got moved to an exit row, which was super nice. I also had a window seat on the way to Japan, and it was SO GREEN, I thought "maybe going to Japan wouldn't be so bad after all!". When we got to Japan we pretty much had to run to our next flight, so no time for sushi :( I think I must have been super hungry because I thought the airplane food was delightful. When we got to the Philippines I felt like I couldn't breathe because of the humidity! It was raining (of course) and we all packed into a shuttle to go to the airport hotel. I know you looked it up on-line, and we were in the little huts they show on-line (I think).   

((photo from the Manila Airport Hotel Web site))

 The sisters stayed in one and the elders stayed in the other. There was a really scary monkey that was chained to a pole, and it would jump at you whenever you walked past. I'm pretty sure if it wasn't on a chain it would have killed us all. We also got to see a gigantic cockroach and a little spider that ran too fast for me to smash, which was.... fun... Also the rumors about toilet paper are true, so we just used our hands. Just kidding... we used kleen-exes. TMI? I didn't want to dig out the little roll of toilet paper I had. The hotel was air-conditioned, which was super nice, and I slept really well for the 5 hours I got to sleep!

 

This morning we found out that all the other huts were full of missionaries too! There are a couple missionaries from Australia and New Zealand and a bunch from Tonga. At breakfast I had eggs and bacon and toast with delicious "juice" aka Tang. Yum yum.  The drive to Manila was ...hectic*. I saw a ton of Jeep-neys in the flesh and my life flashed before my eyes at least thrice.  The people here be cray cray drivers.   

((photo from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints official Web page.  LDS.org))

Apparently the group I'm with is a test group for the Philippines Missionary Training Center [MTC]. This is the first group of not-natives they're having at this MTC, so we'll see how the roll of guinea pig fits me. ((Apparently prior to Raeleigh's group the stay at this MTC was just 2 weeks, Raeleigh is scheduled to be there for 6 weeks to learn Tagalog)).

I finally got my name-tag!! It looks great :) They gave me 2 MORE immunizations, and I'll get another one next week. Hurray... they are not quite as gentle here as they are in the good ol' states. They also x-rayed us, checked out our teeth, gave us lots of vitamins that we take every day, and gave us a pill to keep the parasites away! Apparently one of the vitamins makes you drowsy, so I'll be hopeless on that. Whenever I tell people here that I'm in the Manila mission they have kind of a weird reaction that I don't know how to interpret, and they tell me I'm lucky that I get to go to the temple about once a month! I'm excited about that. The temple here is beautiful, and we got to it right as the sun was rising, which was really great. I haven't met my companion yet, they've just had us running around getting all the check-in stuff done.

 

I feel at peace that this is where I'm supposed to be. Well most of the time I feel that way. I'm super nervous about the language and how different this place is, but I think it'll all be alright. The Missionary Training Center is beautiful, and it's green wherever there aren't buildings.  

Running: One of the World's Strangest Sports

But seriously. You just... run? You just move your legs really fast and breathe really hard for a long time? It is the weirdest sport, but I really like it! I wouldn't quite say that I'm 'addicted' to running, but the feeling I get after I finish a run is awesome. I started running about a year ago, but got more serious about it in January (New Years resolutions, am I right?). My dad really got me started running, and my roommate India kept me motivated when all I wanted to do was wrap up in a blanket and eat cereal. 

Like this. 

Running has been really great, because I love feeling like I'm taking good care of my body. I'm so grateful I have a healthy body and I don't want to waste it! At all the races I've done, I've seen awesome old people who run circles around me, and it's my goal in life to be like that when I grow up. 

My first official 5K- The Zombie Chase

The Chasing Cupid 5K (freeeezing)

Leprechaun Lope 10K

Here I broke my tradition of running only on holidays and did a fundraiser 5K for Boston victims (p.s. thanks for letting me steal your insta pic, India!)

My dad and I achieved our goal of running a half marathon (though he's already run 2) on June 15 at the American Fork Canyon Half! It's probably the first time I've ever actually followed through on a New Year's resolution. I listened to the Harry Potter soundtracks the whole time, which made me feel equal parts motivated and magical. My mantra went something like: if Harry Potter can defeat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, I can run 13.1 miles. The race was pretty much all downhill which was nice for the first 7 or 8 miles, but miles 11-13 were pretty brutal. When you run uphill, it hurts while you're running uphill, but when you run downhill, it hurts for three days (as I always say). I don't know how much I'll get to run on my mission, but I'll definitely get back into it when I get back!       

Hawaii (That's Pretty Neat)

A few weeks ago, my family went on a 'last fling' vacation to Hawaii before I leave on my mission in a few weeks, and before my little brother leaves on his mission next year! It was so much fun. Usually my family is gogogogo! on vacations, but this one was pretty laid back, and it was really nice! It was great to see how much Heavenly Father loves us to create the beautiful earth we live on. We went to the beach, ate snow cones and shrimp, visited the Polynesian Cultural Center and Pearl Harbor, watched E.T. and just spent some quality time with each other! Here be some photos:

Hey! Save me a piece of that corn!

Whenever we were driving around the beautiful island, I thought about how if I owned Hawaii, I would put dinosaur statues/animatronics all over the place. I wouldn't make them too terrible obvious, just enough so people would double-take and say "Did you see that?!". Genius. 

 Wouldn't that be neat?
The neatest part of the trip was when my family went to the Laie temple and visitors center. The temple itself is so beautiful, it's ridiculous. My family attempted to take a picture in the blinding sun, and when some sister missionaries offered to take one for us, we found out there was a sister missionary from Manila in the visitors center at that very moment! 
Coincidence? I think not!
Her name is Sister Gamba and she was such a sweetheart! She gave me the inside scoop on Manila and told me she'd find me when she goes home in October. How neat is that? That's pretty neat. I love seeing these little miracles already happening in my life, and I haven't even gotten into the field yet! 

Me, Sister Gamba, and the Tagalog Book of Mormon!

All in all, it was a successful vacation, and I'm, so grateful for the time I got to spend with my family. Like I always say: "Being out in nature is about the neatest thing there is". (That's pretty neat)

I love to see the temple

This was an incredible day! It started out so rainy (which I love) and I listened to some real nice Clair de Lune on my way to class, where I paid absolutely no attention because I was so excited to go to the temple. My mom and I went out to lunch at Zupa's and by the time we got to the Draper temple, the clouds had cleared and it was a beautiful day. The whole experience was a whirlwind, but I loved it! The spirit was so strong the whole time, it was amazing. I loved having some of my family there, especially those who have already passed on. The temple is so neat, it's literally God's house, and it's so cool He invites us to come! I'm very grateful for the blessings of the temple, and to be able to live in Utah where you can be standing at the Draper temple and see 3 others in the valley! I've been to the Salt Lake, Jordan River, Draper (obviously), Bountiful, and Oquirrh Mountain temples so far. I'm hoping to make it to all the temples in Utah before I leave, but I don't have much time left and that's a pretty tall order! The point is, the temple is an amazing place, and everyone should go there in some capacity or another, it's worth it!