So Long USA!

      Well I leave the MTC in just a few hours!!! I'm super pumped to leave but not super pumped to spend like a whole day on the plane.... I think I got everything that I need and everything out of my room... but if not I guess I don't really need it that much. My kasama has a pic of his flight plans and since they're the same I'll try and add them on my drive. I should be calling you either before I leave in salt lake so at like 6ish? (depends on how long other people take on the phone) or in LA between 9 and midnight so wouldn't that be fun ;) It is so good to hear from you all and I'm sure that I'll have much more to talk about in about a week. mahalnamahalnamahal ko tayo!!!!! (love love love) I'll talk to you soon!!!


We got to talk to Chase.  He sounded great, super happy and excited.  He was traveling with about 80 other missionaries.  He left SLC at 7 and flew to Los Angeles.  He flew out of LA at midnight and landed in Hong Kong at 6:00 am   Sept 1 (4:00pm  Aug 31st our time)  another layover and he flies to Manila, where he'll land at 11:30 am Sept 1st (9:30 pm Aug 31st our time)  Poor boys will have been traveling over 24 hrs with 19 hours on a plane!

 We got this picture last night with this message:  This is your sons' flight attendant.  They have landed in LAX safely!  Such gentlemen you have raised.

The rest are random MTC pictures

Last Week (MTC), Hopefully

     Well this should be my last whole week in the MTC assuming my visa and everything works out. It has kinda been a drag... I'm still not so great at the language but I am so ready to just be out there. We got our flight plans Friday. Wednesday I fly out of Salt Lake at 7 to L.A but I leave the MTC at like 1.... (I think they have me call you sometime Wednesday before that but I'm not sure) then from LA I fly to Hong Cong which will be awesome just because I can claim I've been there. That flight will be long but it shouldn't be too bad because we leave LA at 11:55 and then from Hong Kong I have a 4 hour layover and fly to Manila. I have heard that I won't email you there until my Pday which could be any day or I might not be able to email you until I get to Naga on the 6th but I have no idea really. Anyways getting those has not really helped my concentration.. I'm pretty much over being sick which is good because it will be just in time to get sick in Naga or Manila! Last night I heard a story of great hope! a teacher was showing us pictures of his mission and he said when he left on his mission he was about 215 lbs (same) and then he lost a ton of weight!  When he came home he only weighed 165!! Crazy right? Dad forget all the hikes mom is making you go on, fly to a third world country and walk around there. The eclipse wasn't that cool from here but it was nice to play volleyball as it got a little darker. Speaking of volleyball I am way better at it now! Turns out if you play it every single day you get better! I really hope that I can play in Naga because with my new skills plus the height I'll be unstoppable!!  I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one sitting in a desk all day now! School isn't great but it sure is nice to know the stuff you learn there so take it seriously (at least until senior year) I'm a little sad because last night was the last night we got to have brother Blackham as a teacher. He flew back to the Philippines with his wife to teach with the missionaries and visit his mission. (If I haven't mentioned it before he is the super missionary. He loves the work and is so so so happy to help in any way he can) The day before he left he did personal interviews with all of us to help us get ready to go out and it was way spiritual and awesome. He's one of those people that when you see them you know without a doubt what kingdom they're headed for. I'll miss him but it's good he can go teach other people. It was Elder Mickleson's birthday yesterday as well and so we all celebrated that as much as we could. His parents mailed him a cake that tasted awesome! Other than that things have been going pretty normal here. I laughed the hardest this week when Brother Blackham said something right before he prayed. (story time) one Elder always says siyempra (of course) any time anybody asks him to do anything and then clears his throat. EVERY TIME! so Elder Mickleson asked Brother Blackham to pray and he said that and then cleared his throat for like 15 seconds and everybody lost it and we just laughed for like 10 minutes. Probably the hardest thing I did this week was a finding activity. We split our class into missionaries and then investigators and we were supposed to go up and get to know them and then find a way to bring the gospel into their life or at least just mention it. That really taught me that I know almost no words except of gospel ones. So I'll need to work on that part of the language a little bit more. So great news!!! after all this time I have finally weighed myself!! (I've been putting it off because I didn't want to know) but I only weigh 199!!! its awesome!  Anyways MAHAL KO TAYO!!!!  (I love you all)

                                                      Us with Adrian our first "investigator"

                                  And a nice view of the MTC from the ponder room we were studying in in T4. 

                                                               Brother Blackham and us

                                          And lastly us celebrating Elder Micklesons birthday last night

Bad News Aug 17, 2017

     So I have some bad news.. Today at the temple the size of pants I usually get felt a little small!! I guess it's a good thing I'll be shipping out to the field right here quick. I should be getting my flight plans sometime this week which is super cool. I'm starting to get the language a lot better now but I know I still need to work pretty hard. The Naga Mission sent out an email to me with a picture of all the people that will be trainers. There is this one elder who looks about as big as Katie and so I think it would be super funny if I can get him. So i guess that in Naga there are a couple of deaf wards that speak ASL... Lucky for me my kasama is about 80% fluent so he has been teaching me the basics in our free time. I can do all the alphabet and I know a couple other things. This last week flew by so fast! I feel like I blinked and it was over. So I'm still singing in the choir and I love it.  Sunday we had to sing sweet hour of prayer again because they broadcast the devotional to all the MTCs in the world. Elder Ballard was there and gave a great talk about locking our hearts which I have no problem with because I have no girls to worry about. Then  Tuesday we sang the missionary medley. I don't know if you can find that somewhere but it was the coolest song. We sang that one for Elder Andersen in another worldwide broad cast. Not to brag or anything but my kasama said I was on the screen so I've been on tv worldwide now... For one of our lessons Brother Blackham taught us about prayer and then just had us go pray for like an hour and a half. That sounds a little boring but it was probably one of the most spiritual experiences that I have ever had. It was so awesome! Yesterday the Lougees got a package from their mom with tons of food and candy so I think the whole district is set for our last couples days here. They also got two foam balls which we have been using to play volleyball in our room. We made a net by tying two ties together. It is super fun and Elder Baum and I are the grandmasters. we have only been beaten twice. I'm glad that you all are camping and stuff it sounds super fun. School will be great I'm sure ;)  Mahal ko Tayo!! Enjoy your next week!

  We are being  an elder who was here before us. We call him elder cool guy because he always had his pants low and would give you a high five and then snap. Its pretty fun to copy him as you can see

week 3????

Apparently Elder Wallace is a bit confused about how long he's been in the MTC.

    It is crazy that I'm already halfway through the MTC!! All the older kids left this Wednesday and so that means my group are the old kids now! It is a weird thought because when I first came in I didn't think I would ever be as good as they were. However you can see it in the new kids eyes that they think you're pretty great. We had a good time teasing/teaching them though. It was super funny to just walk up to them and say "kumusta po kayo? ako po si elder wallace!" They just kind of stutter and look confused. But I know I did the exact same thing 3 weeks ago. So a couple funny things that happened that I'm gonna try to explain but I don't know if I can.

 In Tagalog there aren't really words like the, is, are. So instead each verb gives out an ANG which is the focus of the sentence. for example nagturo Ang Diyos (taught God) the ANG making God the focus okay? And if you change what the focus is then the whole sentence is different. So as we were learning Elder Lougee Isa (or Elder Lougee 1 meaning  the first twin(not my kasama)) said a sentence and the teacher looks at him weird for a minute and says "You just said that Jesus Christ killed the people" what he meant to say was the people killed Jesus but that pesky ANG.... other things that make Tagalog fun.... Heart is Puso and Cat is Pusa. So elder Bennion told his investigator he could feel the holy ghost through his cat. It's really the little things that make Tagalog fun. This week on Sunday we got to have about and hour long Q&A with Elder Bednar which was incredible. He is super super smart but he is also pretty funny and you don't get to see that side of him quite as much in GC. I learned a lot about prayer. He taught that everything has a spirit before it is created in earth and your morning prayer should be the spirit (like a blueprint) for your day. I never thought about that before so I've been changing up how I pray. In the choir this week we sang sweet hour of prayer which is an awesome song. 

Dad so I wouldn't know what its like to sing called to serve with 3000 missionaries because there is a bit more than that here. Our teacher told us that this summer is the most full the provo mtc has ever been. I don't know how many are here but it is a ton.  The cool thing about joy is that lots of people think it just means to be happy but that isn't always the case. look up 2 nephi 2:25 and look at the footnote on joy.   We got 38 new missionaries in our zone so 4 new districts which makes it the biggest it has ever been with like 70ish kids. We go to church as a zone so its pretty big which is good because the way they pick the talks for the day is by making everybody make one and then telling everybody who will speak over the pulpit so you never know until you literally have to go speak. anyways bigger zone equals less chance to get picked. The nametag is english because the church was established in english so they just keep it which is a little sad but oh whale.. I go to the temple every p-day  before I email you so we usually hit the 8:00 session. 

I love you all so much and it sounds like you are getting ready to go to school which should be all fun and good. Mahal Kayo!!!!

                                                           Elder Rigby and his art

                          Elder Mickleson and the pen.  When we get bored we try and get our pens to land on a ledge made by the board and by some crazy chance the pen landed as pictured.  It will probably stay there until the end of time.

Picture in the new part of the MTC

                                                                     vollleyball players

                                             some fun with Chase during his p-day nap

Week 2(ish)

     I think that this is week three on paper for my schedule and stuff but it's really only week two. This week has flown by! I feel like I don't have a ton to share mostly because everyday we do the same thing! Wake up, eat, study, play volleyball, eat, study, go to class, study, eat, go to class, then sleep. Even though that sounds uber boring and terrible, I've been loving it!  The days are long but I also feel like  Sunday was yesterday so I don't mind it too much. I'm getting a little more comfortable with the language and can make simple sentences in my head and it only takes me like 10 minutes!! JK jK maybe like 30 seconds but when you are trying to talk to somebody it feels like forever. You think that it wouldn't be too hard to say words since all the letters only make one sound always (no C X Z F and a couple other letters in their alphabet) but it isn't easy. Our teacher explain Tagalog as the great language mixing pot because they take from Asian languages, Indian, Spanish, and English. So it can be a bit of a mess sometimes. I'm convinced that if you talk fast that the people don't really care how you say half of their words. Also because tons of the words need linkers a sentence ends up sounding like one super long word. Mom everybody in my district says you're the best and thank you so much for the m&ms. I've seen Elder Eck a couple of times and I had my kasama take a pic of me and David so I'll try and get that picture from him.   Everything sounds pretty great at home and I'm glad you are all being active and stuff it's really good for you. I'll have you know I live on the fourth floor and my class is on the third so I'm going up and down like 20 flights of stairs a day and I count that as keeping me fit. It feels a little like a zoo here with all the tours going on.   I kinda hate it especially when people take pictures of us eating.  I also forgot to say I joined the choir which is fun. Mostly so I had an excuse to take a break from studying plus elder Baum needed a kasama to go with him when he went.  I have seen so many people I know. I see at least one person I know from school a day. It is awesome to see kids going out to serve!  I love you all so much!! Its so good to hear from you! Have a great week! Alam ko po na mapagmahal ang ating ama sa langit! Siya gusto kayo to live with him again so keep up the good work in the gospel!! Magmahal Chase!!  (He told me later that the last part says I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father and He wants us to live with Him again.

     Once again, Chase didn't tell me who any of these Elders are.  I know they are in his District.

   He did say this, "also in case you ask in pictures the Filipino people put their hand around their chin like I am in some of the pics because it means they are good looking."