Days at the Philippines MTC

[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

Daniel's youngest brother, Trevor