Memories of a Mission – Page 24 – "We will work for the glory of our Lord"

Philippines Bound!

Monday, July 19, 2004

I don’t actually have a journal entry from this day but I wanted to share some of my memories of the trip from the MTC to the Philippines. We left early in the morning from the MTC on a bus to head to the Salt Lake Airport. I remember leaving around the corner from the MTC and feeling really strange. I had come to be so familiar with the MTC that leaving it was almost as hard as entering it had been.

Elder Lewis and I in LAX having some well earned fast food.

We had a goal to give away a copy of The Book of Mormon on our flight and so when we were in LAX we talked to several people. We were so full of our potential that we thought we were unstoppable. We mostly got shut down by people who didn’t want to listen. We got to call our families from LA and talk for about an hour.

Map of our flight path from Salt Lake to Manila.

We had a very late flight out of LA headed to Taiwan and I don’t remember much of that flight except that they served us a very Asian breakfast of a salted black egg that none of us were able to stomach. After a brief layover in Taipei, where we couldn’t understand anything, we were on our way to the Philippines.

Manila Airport

When we disembarked in Manila, as soon as we got off the plane and into the airport we were hit by a massive wall of humidity. We had been instructed to wear our suits so we were all sweating to death in them. We had to figure out how to get through customs. We all thought that the customs agents would only speak Tagalog so we tried out our primitive language skills on them. They were more confused than we were and eventually we all just started talking in English. After making it through customs and getting our baggage, we headed outside. It was at this point that we realized that the airport had been air conditioned. The “wall of humidity” that we thought we felt when entering the airport was actually the comfort of A/C. Wow! I was sweating buckets under my suit. We had to walk down a ramp and when we got to the bottom there was a massive throng of humanity yelling and screaming in some language that definitely wasn’t the Tagalog we knew!

Luckily The elders from the office showed up pretty quick. They laughed at us and told us to take our suits off! We wouldn’t be needing those for two years. They drove us, like a couple of maniacs, through the maze of Manila traffic back to the mission home where we spent the night and got our assignments in the morning.

One more thing… when we got to the mission home, the office elders gave us each a big bottle of coke with our lunch of pizza from Pizza Hut. (Turns out Pizza Hut would become a rare treat.) We weren’t sure if this was some kind of sick test of our obedience or what. Turns out that we were told by the mission to always drink coke when it was offered to us because it would help kill the worms. I’m not sure if that’s scientifically true, but I drank it all through my mission and as far as I know never got a worm. . .

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Things get rough near the end

Friday, July 16, 2004

Well I haven’t written for a while but I have some things that I really need to get off my chest. For the last few days Elder L. has been really distant from me. I guess it all started a few days ago when I was in the cafeteria. None of the meals really sounded good so I went for some sandwich that had fries with it. I purposefully took a plate with a lot of fries because really that was all I wanted. I went to the table and I set down my tray and went to get a drink. When I came back half of my fries were gone. I asked who had taken them and of course no one answered. I took the fries and put them back on my plate and didn’t eat any more of them but instead got a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich. I guess they all thought that I was being immature about it because that one incident has capitulated into my having fewer and fewer friends in my district. Elder Lewis hasn’t said more than 12 words to me for the last three days and I don’t feel any love or support from him anymore.

Today during companionship study I asked him if we could do a companionship inventory. He begrudgingly assented and we started. I didn’t really say much at all because he talked for about twenty minutes about how I didn’t do anything right, how I was a hypocrite, how he really didn’t like me at all, how he has zero respect for me, how the rest of the Elders have zero respect for me etc… I felt awful after he was done because I had no idea that he felt that way. I wish he’d have told me sooner that he had problems so that I could fix them before it was too late to fix any problems I have caused or feelings that I’ve hurt.

I really try my hardest but I don’t think I’ve had a leadership calling yet where I’ve been respected by those I lead. Overall this day has been really really crappy.

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Flight Plans!

Saturday, July 10, 2004

Well the TE was interesting last night. Elder L. doesn’t really want to talk in Tagalog much so I end up doing all of the talking. I tried to encourage him but he just doesn’t even want to try. I wish that I could help him some way.

I’ve gotten a bit sick lately. Yesterday and today my voice has just totally died. It makes things hard because I have to talk in order to practice my Tagalog like I would like. Hopefully I’ll feel better by tomorrow.

Airline tickets are one of the most exciting parts of the MTC!

I got my flight plans yesterday! I leave here at 4:00 pm on the 19^th. I am so excited and ready to go! Guess what … surprise surprise I am the travel leader. It’s just because I’m first in alphabetical order but still, now I have one more thing to worry about.

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Learning to Resolve Concerns

Friday, July 9, 2004

Last night Bro Santiago threw a scary situation at us. We’ve been following one “investigator” named Mumoy and we’ve been teaching him in successive situations. Bro Santiago said that we were to prepare to teach him the second outline. However, when we got over to the situation rooms at the TRC he threw a whole different situation at us. He hadn’t read the Book of Mormon and prayed. He did both but didn’t receive an answer to his prayer. We ended up talking with him for forty minutes about how to pray. It went well except that afterwards I realized that perhaps I hadn’t gotten to the bottom of his concern. I felt bad. It’s hard for me to do these situations because Elder L often doesn’t have anything to say and I end up saying everything. He could do it but just doesn’t want to make the effort.

: Bro Severson and me

: Bro Santiago and our district

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Leading the District

Thursday, July 8, 2004

Elder Lewis and Elder Cox

Yesterday was our preparation day. It was really long because we didn’t get to go to the temple because it is closed. I ended up getting about six letters written because we had so much time. Also yesterday Elder Cox, Elder Lewis, and myself talked for a long time about what we should do to increase the commitment level in the district. Elder Cox prayed about it for a long time on Tuesday night and he was impressed that we should have a talk in our class time last night. We went over what we wanted to bring up and how we wanted to go about it. The meeting was very successful I think. Everybody realized that we had a problem and that things needed to change. Things were a lot better last night regarding quiet time and lights out. We still have some work to do with a few people in other districts but it is getting a lot better.

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July 4th on a Sunday at the MTC

Sunday, July 4, 2004

Well it looks like I’ve missed more than a week of writing. I’ll just touch on a few highlights of this week.

First of all I had a really good experience in the TE on Friday. Elder Lewis and I had decided that we would try to teach the second lesson plan about the principles of the gospel and the atonement of Jesus Christ. We tried it earlier in the week at the TEC but it was pretty much a disaster. We decided that we’d just teach about the atonement and how we can overcome physical and spiritual death through Jesus Christ. We had an amazing experience while we were teaching. Somehow when we were teaching the first “investigator” everything that I could say just came to me. I had never felt the spirit while I was teaching in Tagalog until then. I was, and am, so grateful for this because I’ve really been afraid that it would take me forever to be able to really teach. I really want to be able to teach with power when we leave here in a few weeks.

My good friend, and brother in spirit, Brian Saville and I were in the MTC at the same time. He served in Las Vegas. We both had great missions and are grateful for each other’s help in out lives.

It’s really been hitting me lately that I’m almost done with the MTC. I don’t feel ready in many ways for the field, but in another sense I just want to get out there and teach the people. I’m supposed to get my flight plans sometime this week so I’m really excited.

Last night we had a special fireside to celebrate the 4^th of July. The mission president invited a sister to come and sing and play for us. It was good. President Owen spoke then about the importance of following all the little rules and about being strictly obedient[1].

[1] After the fireside we were allowed to go out into the parking lot of the MTC to watch the fireworks from BYU stadium from the Stadium of Fire. It was a bit surreal watching them from there and being so far removed from that holiday celebration.

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Patriotic Service at the MTC (Saturday, July 3, 2004)

I don’t have an entry from my journal for this day but I do have some photos. We had a fun patriotic fireside on the 3rd and then they let us go outside and watch the fireworks that were being shot off at stadium of fire at LaVell Edwards stadium next door.

: We got to watch fireworks under these flags on the south side of the MTC.

: Fireworks from the MTC

: Fireworks again

: Fireworks on the 4th of July

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Companionship Inventory (Friday, June 25, 2004)

Elder Lewis and I had a good talk today during our companionship study. We really were able to resolve most of both of our concerns. I was upset because he is slow and we didn’t get to teach the second discussion today in the TE. I really want to excel at the teaching and it’s hard sometimes when he is not so fast at getting the language.

I’ve been reading, well starting today, that every day I’m going to read a chapter in my Tagalog Book of Mormon. I think that if I do that I’ll be able to get the language a lot faster[1].

Reading the Ensign at my desk in our room

Well things are generally good. Life goes on whether good or bad. I really want to have an awesome experience on this mission and I need to try harder to get it.

[1] I actually set a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon in Tagalog on my mission at some point. It may have been this point or maybe later. I found that it really did help.

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Lots of Self-directed Time (Thursday, June 24, 2004)

The MTC District. Macarannas b.Ahmu, Orme, Jones m. Clark, Lewis, Arnesen, Macarannas, Fairbanks, Craig, Pieper, Cox, Spaulding, f.Bro.Santiago

Days are so long. I never really thought that my mission would be a trial for me. I always pictured it as a place where everybody would be more like me and I wouldn’t be the only one that stood out for being “good.” We had a lot of self-directed time today because in the afternoon the mission presidents were using our classroom and we had to be gone. We also had SD time tonight because Bro Santiago was gone. SD times are really hard because not everybody wants to work and those that do want to have a hard time getting anything done because of them. I was talking to one of the district leaders, Elder Nunnery, and he said that he thought that only about 10% of the Elders are really dedicated to the work. It really is true. Even though there really isn’t anything to do besides and study the language, people still find things to do to goof off. I also have a really hard time leading the Elders because everything I do gets cut down by my companion. He adopts the attitude that “I can’t do anything and I’m not going to try.” I don’t know what to do.

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Family Names at the Temple (Wednesday, June 23, 2004)

Today was another day. We got to go to the temple this morning. Mom and Dad gave me a lot of names to do and I had my district do them this morning. It’s always a special experience to do family names.

Elder Lewis and me at the map pointing to the Philippines.

I also wrote a few letters today. I got all of my family’s letters today so I wrote them a good letter. I also wrote to Megan Lyndsay and to Amy. I really like P-days just because they are a chance to relax.

Tonight in class we all worked on the 4^th discussion. We divided up into groups and prepared different parts. When we were done we taught a class for almost an hour and a half on the discussion. It was really good.

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