August 24, 2013

Kamusta pamilya!

It's weird to me that BYU fall semester is starting really soon. So close, yet so far away...

I love the MTC choir. We have choir practice before the Sunday devotional and before the Tuesday devotional then we sing at the Tuesday devotional. Last Sunday's devotional was [Editor’s note: name omitted but a former college and professional football player from Tonga who is now a prominent news anchor in Philadelphia]. Biggest brag fest I've ever witnessed in my life. Haha, it was so funny. He kept saying things like this "I was the star of the BYU football team, I did this and that, I wore a Packer's helmet, something about the miracle bowl, now I'm an incredibly successful news anchor, and I have been sent to Greece and Paris and whatever and I will continue to be sent to exotic places, but nothing compares to my mission in the SDRCM (South Dakota Rapid City Mission). It was hilarious. It was a good devotional, but he was basically just bragging about himself for an hour. [Editors note: Who knows where this general attitude of disrespect towards BYU football comes from??]

I have a Tagalog Book of Mormon. There are so many words in each verse compared to English. My Tagalog Book of Mormon is about the size of my English Bible. Tagalog is going pretty well. It's a little frustrating, but it's okay. It freaks me out that I am more than halfway done with the MTC. I definitely do not know half of Tagalog. Last Saturday in the TRC we taught someone that was from the Philippines, but now she lives in Orem. It actually went pretty well! Mostly because she just talked for pretty much the whole time, haha. Church is in Tagalog. We all have to prepare a five minute talk every Sunday then during Sacrament Meeting they call on two people to give it. Hasn't happened to me yet. Then the branch president or a counselor speaks. They just speak in English because they don't know Tagalog.

 
This week, we realized that when Elder R [full name omitted] eats an apple, he eats the entire apple. Core, seeds, everything (except the stem. Too stringy apparently). I asked him why. He said that the core of an apple has trace amounts of arsenic in it. He is determined to slowly build up his immunity to arsenic, in case someone poisons him. That's all I have to say about that.

My district loved seeing the pictures of that mission home they're renting! It's beautiful! I'm starting to feel like I'm a bit cooped up in the MTC, so I'm really excited to get to the Philippines, except I'm a bit scared because I don't know as much Tagalog as I would like. I'm going to miss my district though! Sadly Elder Wetterstrand and Elder Peck are not going to Baguio.

 
The choir director's last name is "Eggit" and he said someone named their baby after him on his mission. They thought it was a really cool American name, haha.

Thank you for everything! I love you all very much. Have a great week!
 
Love, Sister Mortell