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.