Week 3: Balut and Filipino Culture

Every week is just so amazing here at the MTC! There are so many ups and downs, but the high points always seem to leave the greatest impression on my heart.

Last week we left the MTC for the first time to go the the grocery store to get some snacks.  The food here is so GOOD! A lot of the food is similar to the US though. It was so strange to be in the ACTUAL Philippines. The MTC is a little heaven here. 

Language learning is difficult, as usual. This week we started learning grammar... FINALLY! There have been so many times that I have asked a question to my teachers, and they just tell me, "We will teach you about that later." I feel like I haven't made a lot of progress, but then I think back to my times in High School where I was trying to learn Spanish. I would say that we are all equal to a second year spanish class, even though it has only been 3ish weeks. I can tell that God is guiding us every day to help us learn the language and learn how to become better missionaries. The more I learn Tagalog, and the more I teach investigators to the church, the more motivated I am to become fluent. Tomorrow we go out into the field for exchanges with experienced missionaries. We will be teaching actual people out in the field! I cannont wait :)

The Mosiah District had a little bit of a rough week. Some companionships were struggling so I tried my best to advise them. Later in the week we sat down as a district and talked about our purpose as missionaries and our purpose here at the MTC. We had an amazing heart to heart discussion on how we can improve. We started to work together a lot better and I can tell we are all going to be friends for a long long time. Our district is filled with such a variety of people, but it somehow works! I will treasure each moment I have with them.

Speaking of people leaving, today all the Senior Language Training Missionaries and Regular Training Missionaries left for the field. It was so sad to see them go! I felt so close to them, more than I would have ever thought. The Seniors were such good examples of leaders and missionaries. I hope we can help inspire others the way they did for us. Since the Seniors are gone, Elder Cantillo and myself were chosen as Zone Leaders. It will be quite the responsibility, but it will be a great experience. The Filipinos were always so nice and fun to be around. Even though I make plenty of mistakes in Tagalog, they always smile and help me along the way. I will miss playing sports with them and I will miss growing spiritually with them. I hope to see a lot of them again some time in life. 

Ok, the Filipino culture here is so interesting to me! Here are some things that are way different for me:

1) When they say yes, they make the MmmMmmm sound that Americans make to say no...

2) When they do not know what you say, they just look at you and open their mouth super wide

3) They point and give directions by pointing their lips

4) When we aren't using our hands to eat, we use both a spoon and a fork and push the food onto the spoon using the fork. It was way more efficient than what I used to do. I'm not going back, haha!

5) Bulot is not as bad as every says... even though I was this close to throwing up after eating my second one... it is a fertilized duck egg, were the baby bird is developed. There are feathers and beaks and bones... yeah...

Anyways, I love the gospel so much. I feel like I have grown exponentially here. I am having such a blast here and we love joking around, while still learning. I am a pretty straightforward writer, so it may sound like I am boring, but it is difficult for me to express the amazing time I am having here. Love all you guys!