[sent Jan. 3, 2014]
I can't believe how many e-mails I got this
last week. I've been waiting to hear from you guys. I still haven't gotten
homesick. I'm much too busy for that. I remember that the first day I got here
felt like the longest day of my life. I had never had every minute of a
day planned out before. I slept like a rock that night. But after the
first week the time started to go by really quickly. I feel like Sunday was
yesterday.
I hope to answer all of your questions through this
email, but I only have one hour.
I'm really glad that Elijah is fasting for me,
it's not easy to do, but I appreciate it. I would fast on some Sundays,
but if you saw my schedule you would understand why I can't. Every morning
I get up at 6, or earlier. I'm the room leader in our room and the oldest,
so if I don't get up no one would. Then there's roll call at 6:10 and then
at 6:15 there's breakfast, then I have personal or companionship study right after
breakfast, then language study or preparation for a lesson, because every day
we teach a lesson to someone portraying an investigator who speaks mostly
tagalog, then usually at 11:00 I have lunch, then more studying and
language classes, then more studying, then gym at 3:00, (I usually play
volleyball), then I have to change and go to dinner at 4:30, by the way
the food here is awesome; mostly. Of course this food isn't the same
as the food that I'll be eating in a month, the MTC kind of spoils
us. Then after dinner, there's more studying and more planning or
sometimes a devotional, or some other meeting, then from 8:30 to 9:00
there's daily planning, and 9:00 to 10:00 is referred to as
quiet time, in our rooms, but it's rarely quiet. And then at 10:00 we
go to bed.
This isn't how every day is, it's just a basic outline. For
halimbawa, on New Years Eve, no one went to bed on time. I even tried
to, but the fireworks were too loud. There were fireworks constantly going
off from 7:00pm to 12:45am. It sounded like we were in a warzone. I even
took some melatonin, but I only got about 4 oras of sleep that night.
My mga kasama are Elder Wake and Elder Blau. I'm in a
tri-companionship which is really complicated and difficult. During a lesson
it's hard to divide teaching time between 3 people, and you always have to stay
with your kasama, so if one of my mga kasama needs to go to the CR (bathroom)
then all three of us have to go, or if one of us forgot our planner then we all
have to go back to the room to get it. It's frustrating, but I'm usually the
one who forgets things.
I've learned a lot of Tagalog in the last 2 weeks. I say
almost all of my prayers in Tagalog now and I can communicate at a very basic
level. I've learned about 200 words, but some of my favorites are:
pananampalataya, kawili-wili, bakit, mabuti, and simbahan. There's a new batch
of missionaries here every 2 weeks. We just got about 50 new missionaries,
about 15 of them are American, I'm really looking forward to using the phrase:
Ikinagagalak ko pong makilala kayong.
There are lots of great people that I've met. The Sister
missionaries are awesome and really easy to talk to. Sister Fu'e, Sister
Dennis, Sister Pasha and Sister Kelleher are the Sisters in our
district and some of them are learning their 3rd language. They are
awesome. Of course the Elders are great too, but they can get rowdy and
annoying. :)
My watch has an analog and digital face, so when I got
here I only changed the analog one. So, I can always know what time it is at
home, and what day. It's past midnight right now where you are, but I'm about
to have dinner here which is kawili-wili. I'm surprised that I don't miss all
of you more than I do. I'm fine with being here. It's really hot outside, but
I'm usually inside. :) I still don't feel like a missionary, but I am one. I
wear the badge everyday. :)
-Elder Southwick
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| Daniel's youngest brother, Trevor |
