May 25, 2013

The MTC has been great so far, my companion is nice! His name is Elder Tauk'eyaho. He is Tongan, which means that I am now in the club that knows everyone here who is Tongan! However, that also means that we have to stop and talk to everyone who might be a little bit Tongan. The other elders in my district are also nice.

The first day you put your stuff away in the dorms and then walk over to your classroom where the teacher greets you in Tagalog. The teachers here only talk in Tagalog, it’s to help you learn the language. It was a bit overwhelming at fist but doesn’t seem as bad now that I get the gist of what they are saying.  So far I have learned quite a bit, my vocab doubles each day. It is crazy to think that I should soon be talking fluently!

The food here is pretty good, very similar to the cannon center at BYU. I actually think that they probably get all the stuff from the cannon center at BYU.

I have seen quite a few people that I know! A lot of my friends from school are here. I have seen about 10, including Sean Pinder.

Yesterday we taught our first investigator, in Tagolog. It was a new experience to say the least. Pasencha (spelling might be off) means sorry in Tagalog, that was the word we probably used the most. We taught the investigator about the book of Mormon and challenged him to read a few chapters. The whole time we were scrambling through our books trying to find first what he was saying to us, and then how to answer it. I am amazed that he wasn't laughing the entire time! Dear elder is a really good way to send mail; they deliver it the same day. One of the Elders in my districts Mom is well aware of this, he has gotten six letters so far; we all got a pretty good laugh about that. Apparently she started sending him letters three days before he even got here.

I miss and love you all! And I hope that everything is going well!

I may also send regular letters home throughout the week that way I don’t forget about anything.

 

Kita Kits(see you later),

Elder Hayden Merrill