Week 6 - MTC 7/26/2011

so i have only seen porter once and it was the day he got here. (porter is another cousin, he's headed to Guatemala) he has a completely different schedule than me, i have been really looking hard too. but i did talk to Lisa (a friend from Memphis) and i see her every once in a while. i would really like to see porter some more mason gave me some stuff to give him and its in my backpack.

but any way, i told you a few weeks ago my favorite scripture and it was the wrong verse its not verse 6 its verse 8. i really like it. so just wondering if you guys got my letter and pictures i sent on Thursday. i really hope to get some more out today but I'm not making any promises. the temple is reopened so we are going to the temple instead of chillin in the room. i m really glad we are able to attend the temple this week. we had a great speaker, he spoke to us a few weeks ago. he is in charge of making those cheesy commercials the church put out before but, it was really funny he played some of them for us.

so this week i have really been down about not memorizing words fast enough. i was only getting like 15 a day and i decided to put a goal in place for the district to pray before all of our studies and it has really helped i was able to get 43 words the first day and 63 the next. my goal was only 120 words this week and i already have 150 its crazy how the lord can help, but he may not help unless we ask him too and show we truly want his help. so this last week we had our first all cebuano TRC and so we prepared and i was feeling pretty good about it but then no investigators showed up so we didnt get to teach so hopefully this week we will be able to teach. (the MTC has members come and pretend to be non members for the missionaries to teach)

we as a district have also decided we need to only speak cebauno unless we don't know the word because we are supposed to be an example to the new district that comes in tomorrow. we got one new guy already from australia he already knows so much. but any way we are getting 22 new cebuano elders and sisters it will be awesome to have more people to talk to but they are only supposed to hear cebuano from us and their teachers for the first 2 weeks so it ll be fun seeing the new curriculum in place.

so this week i have become a three way companionship again. elder lieshmans kauban went home last wednesday, very sad but he knew it was what needed to be done and i feel he is a great man and think he would have made a great elder. and i know he will be able to teach people even though he isn't going to be serving a mission. so now me, elder mits and elder garver are all companions and although its wierd since me and elder mits have been together for a while and know how to teach with each other i know we will learn to adapt, its what we are called to do.

well i love you and want you all to know i pray for you all every night.

well until next week,

Ayo, Ayo!!

(The only pictures I have, he has sent.  I don't have a scanner, but I will try and add some)

Week 5 - MTC 7/19/2011

ok so thank you for the socks and aunt leslie thank you so much for the packages it is really nice to have snacks just sitting around for adlaw so pagpangandam (pday).

this week on thursday i have my first lesson that will be all in cebuano, im so excited. we as a district have been trying really hard to only speak cebuano as we talk unsag usa (one with another) and it has really been helping.  i recently have really started focusing on my study time, especially language study and i have already seen a big difference. sunday i memorized 35 words and yesterday i got 54, its amazing. before i would only get like 15 or 20 so its really amazing. i would really like to get more but i really hope i can keep it up.

so dad asked a while back if we get house help or a nanay and the answer is sadly no. the church recenctly changed that but i think ill be ok.

so just 4 more weeks and im off to the philippines its crazy to think about but so exciting at the same time.

so i have seen sister lee (a girl from Memphis) a few times so far and im super excited for porter to get here tomorrow.   i would really like to have gym time with him but i have gym with asian speaking and like croatian or something like that. its really amazing how fast people learn and very interesting how you get to hear all the different languages as you walk accross campus. we as missionaries who are learning a foriegn language have to do something called contacting and  its basicly just practicing teaching and bearing testimony in our language to random people. so a couple of times my companion, elder mits who is extremely funny told me even if i mess up he would tell them what i meant to say so i was like alright.

ya, bad idea i accidentally asked the sisiter if she could pray instead of if i could bear my testimony so i said pwede ka magampo instead of  pwede ko magpamatuo kanimo and i mostly did this because we had to teach about prayer and that was a question i had memorized for my lesson. but elder mits told her i said can you pray so then of course everyone one started laughing, even me. but it was a good experience to learn from. my teacher says it happens a lot he told us some stories that were kinda funny and i cant wait to go to the philippines. it will be a shock but i know it will be amazing.

so sunday we had some amazing speakers president and sister soone. sister soone told a story about a japenese missionary who barely spoke english who got called to a spanish speaking mission and at the end of his mission was still struggling with the language. in the end he met a japanese man in a train station who had been looking for missionaries for 30 years and asked if they could teach his family. turns out he had been teaching 65 japanese people about the book of mormon he had from that missionaries dad while his dad was on his mission, so he ended up with 65 baptisms right at the end of his mission. i can feel the spirit so strong just thinking about the story and it is so reassureing that i have been called of god, and i am supposed to go to the philippines for a reason, and at this specific time. i know it will be amazing in the end.

i really love you all and pray for you every day 

ps thank you G&G coontz and patrick and aunt jessica and aunt jill and aunt carrie c. it is so nice to hear from everyone and i will try to write back its just we really dont have as much time as id like on p day. but the temple is closed and my district likes to play four square with my little soccer ball we started playing with our feet and its extremely fun thanks mom and dad but today i think we are all writing letters so i hope to write you all back 

nasayud ko nga tinuod ang simbahan ug nasayud ko nga nahigugma ang dios kanato ug naghatag siya sa atong mga pamila nasayud ko nga tinuod ang Basahon ni Mormon ug nasayud ko nga gusto sa dios kanato nag makabalik kaniya sa ngalan ni jesukristo amen

well im out of time maybe you can try to traslate my short testimony ill try and write out the whole thing later but i love you and pray for you always until next week

                 Elder Coontz

Week 4 - MTC 7/12/2011

ok so as i have gone through my last week with mason here in the mtc its been kinda crazy, he left this morning at 5, its so rediculous to see people come and go, I'm so ready to just go and be in the philippines.  i got my package, aunt leslie brought me a package last week but still don't have my jeans. I'm hoping they are here today i was kinda hoping to get a pair of my vans as well but i forgot to put that in last week. but aunt leslie has a pair so maybe she'll send them.
this week is my last week to be teaching in english. I'm getting nervous. we have to teach the investigator how to pray in cebuano this week its going to be crazy but i know we can do it. I'm getting so much better at making sentences and learning so many words, i never even thought it was possible to learn this fast and the new program they have is ridiculous. we are testing the cebuano program out to correct errors, but its still so amazing how fast we are able to learn i know that we had to have truly been called of god to speak this language or else i don't know that i would be able to learn it. the lord is so amazing in all that he does with the missionaries in the church.
thank you grandma for the scripture its amazing.
i really would like some pictures of family for anyone who is willing to send pictures. any family would be great, i can use it to practice and i was told the Filipino people love seeing what its like in America. so it would be nice to have pictures of some cool stuff. we will be able to use them in our lessons to get peoples attention.
i cant wait till porter gets here next week just 8 more days, i dont think he will have gym with me its mostly Asian and like Slovakian missionaries with our gym and meal times, and the english people in their district. but I'm sure I'll find him at some point. the days are really starting to blend together, the weeks go fast but the days are long. gym time is such an amazing time to just get out any frustration even though its only 50 min and the gym has been closed all week. beach volley ball has been so cool.
aunt angela sorry there are no periods or anything i just don't worry about it because i only have so much time and thanks for the letter its so cool to hear from everyone.
just 5 more weeks and its off to the Philippines. our older district left last night at 5 and they won't be in the Philippines until like 9 tonight and it will be Wednesday there. its crazy!
so we get 2 new english districts this week and and in three weeks we get 21 new cebuano speakers. i cant wait to watch them learn with the new program and see the joy it brings them as well. i know the lord loves us and wants us to bring his word to all the world and i just cant wait to finally teach some real Filipino people. oh and i don't know if you made a plaque for me or not but ill try to send a pic. and my favorite scripture i found while reading in heleman,  its ch 5:6.  i really love this verse and many others of course but i have been able to memorize so many scriptures since i got here its so cool. if only it were always this easy.
i love it here and i love you all. keep the letters coming its so amazing to here from everyone and i hope I'm able to write you all back but my days are busy. so until next week ill be praying for you all and hope you are all safe thank you

Week 3 - MTC 7/5/2011

Ok so this week has been amazing! i do need a pair of jeans and a few pairs of athletic socks if you dont mind sending them to me we do service every wednesday and we have to wear pants and wearing my pj isnt very fun

so this week we had 2 of the most amazing firesides  ive ever been to in my life. (there is no actual fire at this event, just a speaker) the first was saturday we had a fourth of july fireside, even though it wasnt a normal fireside i dont think ive felt the spirit so strong in a fireside ever before. the speaker was an assistant to two presidents of the usa and has been just about everywhere in the world. he told great stories of soldiers and their loyalty and drive to do their job and compared it to us as missionaries its amazing the things that happen in this world and we all still go on like its nothing. we then sunday night heard from elder oaks daughter who is one of the best violin soloists in the world she is an amazing speaker as well and has been through a lot as she has worked to get where she is today she also had her three daughter who were like 5 7 and 9 they were so good its ridiculous

so as a district we have made it a goal to pray in cebuano 100% by the end of this week, its going to be hard but i know we can do it. i cant beleive ive been here for three weeks already its so cool how time goes by when your doing what your supposed to do. i love it here but i am ready to leave at the same time. the older cebuano district leaves on monday and we get new english missionaries for 3 weeks then 21 new cebuano speakers are coming in i cant wait till that happens. being able to speak the language is so cool mostly because only like 14 missionaries are learning it and there are only 4 teachers who speak it so no one really know what we are talking about. its kinda nice when we want our group to do something but dont want the other groups to follow. so elder garver and elder taracina who are going to the the cebu philippines mission were made zone leaders sunday which is good i really believe they are the best people for the job. i have some more pictures im going to try to have printed out if the machine isnt broken today and try to send them. one has everyone in my district. the four that i share a room with are going to tacloban with me and the other four elders are going to cebu wich is just west of tacloban. the older district are all going to tacloban and we were able to meet our new mission president about a week ago and we took pictures with him and his wife so ill have to send to you as well. so mason leaves here in a week or so then ill be here alone for a while, i ran into will hatfield the other day while watching the stadium of fire from on campus it was kinda cool we were just standing waiting for them to start and i looked over and was like hey elder hatfeild and we talked for a little while. i probably wont see him again, he has like the opposite eating and gym schedue than i do but it was nice to find him out of the 2500 missionaries that are here. cant wait for porter to get here even though i think im going to see him come and go just like mason but then ill only have a week when he  leaves. they are saying it may be 10 weeks we are here but there is a chance we could go sooner.

In case you're wondering this is where Tacloban is!

well i love you all and wish you the best ive got to go put my cloths in the dryer now. cant wait till next week to let you know about everything else. and i really love the letters they are just reassuring the fact that i shoud be here its so amazing that we are able to communicate so easily. well i miss you and wish you all the best ayo ayo