HHEEEEYYY!!!
What is up everyone, im here at the MTC and its honestly so overwhelming ill try to get it all down in this email.
So on tuesday i left home and i was pretty depressed about it. the plane ride to LA was pretty bad but once i got there i felt better. We got to our hotel in manila on Thursday and it was like night time when we got there so we just chilled at the hotel. I found some guys serving in my same mission. Elder White, Lowery, Wright, Lutz, Brown, Eccles, and Olpin. There all way cool and we talked all night on thursday. There are like no traffic laws in the Philippines its crazy so our driver was weaving in and out of traffic and it was hilarious, the people use their horns instead of their blinkers.
Friday: I arrived at the MTC and we had meetings and orientations all day, it felt like the longest day of my life. We ate rice and chicken for lunch which wasnt too. I met some Philippino guys and they are hilarious, they laugh at everything. After all the meeting I got my companion, Elder White from LA. He is aight. We have a paper that has like 6 or 7 Tagalog phrases on it that i had to memorize. Long day for sure.
Saturday: We taught our first investigator, her name is sister Rechelle. So me and my companion did not know Tagalog like at all but we had to teach her in Tagalog because she didnt speak english. It was awful, like it really couldnt have gone worse. After that i was pretty mad that we did so bad so me and elder White studied all night and didnt sleep until we knew some more Tagalog. I almost have the scripture Moroni 10:5 memorized. Breakfast was rice and chicken, lunch was rice and chicken, and dinner was...yeah it was rice and chicken.
Sunday: We had sacrament meeting and i helped pass. The speaker was president Reyes my zone president and president Carlos the MTC president. All day was supposed to be like scripture study but me and my companion studied Tagalog most of the day. It was a long day, we had a lot of meetings. Later that day we got to go to the Manila temple, it is closed for 2 weeks so we just walked around the grounds. It was awesome, the temple is amazing and the landscaping at the temple is awesome too. The food was actually good today, french toast for breakfast (bread with cinnamon spread) and eggs. Lunch was fish sticks and rice and dinner was porkchops and rice. I have already eaten more rice at the MTC than i ever have in my life combined.
Monday: We practiced Tagalog all day because we had another lesson with sister Rechelle after dinner. So for some reason the Philippinos wear light blue shirts because i guess when you wash them they turn white. also their shirts are super tight. Its weird so there are a bunch of tiny philippinos running around with tight blue shirts hahaha. Our roomates are philippino and they are both hilarious they know english and help us with tagalog words. they both like Golden State and KD so they bug me about it, they are obsessed with basketball. Most of the people here are older than us White Americans, but they look like they are 12. We taught sister Rechelle and it went way better, although we spoke more taglish than actual tagalog. We asked her to read and pray if the Book of Mormon is true. she said she would. the food was the usual rice and rice with a little bit of rice :) Later we had our physical activity time but it was pouring rain, like harder than ive ever seen. so we played basketball outside in the rain and it was way fun. I taught some of the Tongan sisters how to shoot and dribble but they laughed at everything i said so it wasnt very effective. Everyone here is always happy and smiling even though most of them come from poverty or broken families, its not hard to love the people here.
Tuesday: I memorized the invitation to be baptized in Tagalog, and my vocab is at about 70 words and like 10 long phrases. I can understand people when they talk to me a lot better. we learned the "door approach" today it was pretty easy and me and my companion got it down. After all of our meetings we visited sister Rechelle, the lesson went well it was almost all in tagalog. after about 10 minutes of talking i asked her if she wanted to get baptized and she said yes. So i was pumped, and my compainion was pumped too. Later my companion went to the bathroom and there was like 12 dead cockroaches in the bathroom from earlier in the day. He came out and started freaking out because he felt something crawling on his back. All of the sudden a giant cockroach flew out of his shirt, he started freaking out big time and i had no idea what was happening. It flew on the wall and was trying to get into the ceiling, this thing was a beast. Elder white took off all his clothes because he was so freaked out but to be honest it was hilarious haha.
This week was the longest week of my life by far. it was hard and i had times where i was homesick and discouraged, but i also had good times. I sometimes wish i was in Provo eating cereal for breakfast and good dinners, but i know i need to get used to this culture. Im learning the language faster than i though i could, but i still have so much to learn. The humidity here is unreal, the clothes from monday night that got wet are still wet haha. Miss you guys and love you. talk to ya next week.
Elder Hunter Munk
