July 5, 2010

Kumasta po ang pamilya ko?
Well, things this week have been going pretty well at the MTC. Things are really starting to get tough. The language for me is coming a whole lot easier than the teaching skills. So if you can find any good information on teaching advice for me you can send it to me. Um, I'm glad you all aren't sending me a whole lot of emails since I don't have too much time to write them. I like getting dear elders because I get the read them the same day. Could you tell people I like getting dear elders/letters more than emails and if they want me to write them back they have to be sure to include their address?

Well, like I said I've been pretty worried about teaching a lot lately. We do a lot of demostrations and a lot of things called TEs where just people come and pretend to be investigators and we get to practice teaching them, or contacting them, or door knocking. It is pretty cool. But I have been getting really nervous lately while I teach because I don't want to mess things up. As I've been studying the Bible and Book of Mormon I've come to realize that I'm really doing what the people in these books are doing. Like Moses, and Noah, and Alma, and Ammon, and the 12 apostles, and even Christ, I've been called to teach people God's word. It's a lot to have on my shoulders. How can I be trusted to do these things? But I know that I have been called of God to do so and He will guide me to do so. But I'm still worried a lot that I'll mess up or won't be able to teach things right. I was talking to my district leader, Elder Crowley, about these concerns and he asked me a simple question: "Why?" When I didn't know what to say he asked, "You know what you are teaching is true, right?" I said yes, of course. He gave me that reminder that I really don't really need to worry. As I teach it isn't at all about how well I teach. It is about how well the investigators learns. It matters if the Holy Spirit is present, teaching them. So that is what I've been focusing on mostly. I'll worry about the language more later on.

Dad asked about what my schedule looks like so here's a average one..
6:30-7:00 Wake up, shower, get ready for the day
7:00-7:30 Eat breakfast.. mmhmm chocolate milk, also their french toast sticks are good but I eat a lot of cereal cause some breakfast isn't too good.
7:30-8:30 Personal study
8:30-9:30 companion study
9:30-11:30 Missionary Directed Language Study or Missionary Directed Time = this is time where we can study the language, either on our own or we can sign up to work with the tutor or go to the computer lab and do this program online. MDT is where we can practice I guess teaching other companionships or practice teaching pepe (duck, you'll see that in my pictures) or sign up for these TE labs where we practice teaching fake investigators or practice certain skills. I love TEs they are really helpful and you get some good 1 on 1, or 1 on 2 help.
11:30-12:15 Lunch
12:15-300 Class period- We have two teachers, Brother Slade and Sister Fotu, they are both great teachers. The class periods as you can see are kind of long but we spend some time on language and some time on just missionary prep, or teaching practice and whatnot, they are fun, I love them.
3:10-4:30 gym and shower time- gym is fun, I've played a lot of volleyball with my Samoan friends. Its kind of scary when they spike the ball at my 40mph but funny too.
4:30-5:15 Dinner
5:15-9:00 Another class period. There are three class periods every day and they switch around what time we have them and during one of them is when we do PS, CS, MDT, and MDLS, based on our teacher's schedules. Also like tuesday nights we have devotionals and wednesday mornings we do a service thing in the cafeteria we have Large Group meetings on Fridays so we keep ourselves pretty busy here.
9:00-9:30 companionship prep. i guess or planning. We make goals we want for the next day like contact people in tagalog or whatever to help us be better. We plan what we will study in CS and PS and we schedule our TEs. It's pretty cool.
9:30-10:30 I guess personal time, get ready for bed, This one Elder, Elder Frandsen, is in the military and is trianing me in getting buff and whatnot. I can almost punch through brick walls. So I'm donig this thing called the PErfect Pushup and doing pullups and things every night. I was really sore at first but now I feel much better. I also go around eating food because dinner is so early and I'm hungry. *nod nod, wink wink, I got you* Oh thanks for the food by the way. So my district is so fun. That is all I really have to say, but I love you. Mahal kita! -Elder Burton