9 August 2010

Hey everyone!

Things have been going great at the MTC still! I can't believe I only have 2 weeks left until I leave. When I first got here and looked ahead at the 9 weeks I had, it seemed like forever, but now 2 weeks feels like nothing. I'm really nervous about getting to the Philippines, but I'm so excited to finally start what I came here for. We have been teaching the first lesson in Tagalog the past couple of weeks. It has been fun. It is really cool how much we can say. Now we are going to teach the second lesson in Tagalog. It's kind of a crazy teaching record because we have to teach someone who has lost a family member. Then we are also suppose to incorporate the Word of Wisdom into the lesson. So we have a lot of work to do to prepare for that. I need to learn a lot more words. At this point, what I really need to get down for Tagalog is vocab, because I feel like I understand the structure really well. But I'm excited. I hope that the language will come quickly in the field! But I know with the Lord's help, it will. Anyway, we are suppose to get our flight plans on Friday, so I should know my address then and give you it next week. It is so crazy how fast this has gone by.

So Ted S Jackman spoke at a fireside last night. He was a mission president of the Lima Peru mission. Tatay, diba? He also in his talk talked about someone named Elder Burtran. It was kind of weird because of the resemblence. So I got to ask if you knew him, Dad. I'm not sure how long ago he was mission president though.

We just got like 50 new Philippines missionaries this last Wednesday. It is really cool because like 20 of them are going to Iloilo. So we have just gone from having only 4 people at the MTC ever going to the Iloilo mission to a lot. It is sweet. They are nice people. It seems like a really long time ago that I was in there shoes, but it was only like 7 weeks ago. I remember when I first got to the MTC all the other missionaries seemed so much older than me, even though they were all basically 19 years old. Like 2 weeks ago I heard some Philippines missionaries talking about that and I said something. They then said, "except you, Elder Burton, we didn't think you were really older." Yeah, good times at the MTC. But still, I've felt like I've grown a lot since I've been here. It's a great place.

Our new teacher Brother Day is really hilarious. Every time he speaks Tagalog, he uses like a different voice than when he speaks english. He's taught us a lot of vocab and a lot about the culture in the Philippines. I really like him. He helps us out a lot. He tells us a lot of things that you can say when you get to the Philippines that will make you seem like a native, even though you can't speak the language. Like when someone asks you what you want to do, or whatever, you can just answer if you don't care, "Bahala ka!" Which means like, "You're the boss." Just a bunch of things like that. He is also having us focus on giving commitments too. That is something sometimes hard to do. But it is so important. Because someone can only really grow in this gospel when they choose to themselves. When they choose to pray and read and go to church, that's when they will receive that witness from the Holy Ghost. As missionaries, we can tell them all day that it's true, but they'll never know for themselves until they receive that witness.
I'm also so excited for Grandma and Grandpa's mission call. Something funny about that that is that our floor of our residence hall is split into two groups. Our branch of Philippinos, and the other half are German missionaries. I went over and told some of them that you got your call there and met some of those missionaries. So if you meet any missionaries who were are the MTC at this time they probably saw me. That is pretty cool. Yeah they leave like a week after GandG report to the MTC. So maybe you'll see them go. Exciting, diba?

Thank you all so much for your prayers. Mahal ko kayo!

-Elder Burton.