Tuesday, July 19, 2011

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

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