Hello Family! Dad, please forward/show this to anyone who wants to see it!
Well the trip here, like I said, was super long. (Typing is a lot slower since I haven't been on Netflix all the time here ;)) I met Elder Christiensen, Sister Thomas, and Sister Tuione at the SLC Airport. THey were my travel buddies all the way to the MTC! We actually sat together on all of our flights too so that was a definite bonus. The flight to LA felt SUPER long... ha. I had no idea what would come next. I sat next to a guy from BYU so I couldn't really teach him anything about ebangelyo ni Jesucristo (the gospel of Jesus Christ). He was sobrang nice though! We almost missed our flight to Tokyo but we got on and it turned out fine. The plane was huge (boeing 777) but the seats were still small! Well, at least for me, a whopping 6' 2'' American. THe guy sitting next to me on that flight was straight Japanese so I had no way of communicating with him so nothing happened there. It was sobrang mahirap (so hard) not to watch all of the movies around me! There was NBA, batman, aladdin.... Super struggle.
We finally got to Tokyo after the longest flight ever... Sister Tuione had tons of snacks for us and The bag of snacks that Sister Moe prepared for me helped out a ton. I solved my first Sudoku puzzle ever! Tuione made us all feel stupid because it took her like lima minutes haha (5 minutes). In Tokyo, we had about a 1 1/2 hour layover which actually was kinda nice because we got to walk around a relax a lot. The bathrooms were unreal! And the drinking fountains were straight up ice.. I loved it. Everywhere we just heard "konichiwa?" and we just smiled and walked past, looking like idiots haha It was hilarious. By then, we were all getting pretty tired but I still was barely able to sleep on the flight to Manila.
When we finally got to Manila, it was about...12:30 am here and we headed to customs. It was actually insanely easy and quick to get through customs because we had an American woman grab us and pretend we were her students. She must have had some inside track because she just flew through everything and we followed her. No one asked us any questions. They didn't even check our bags for food or anything! We also all got all of our bags easily so that was a blessing. We got to the curb at the airport and across the street where people wait to pick people up, there were just heaps of people (heaps-Australian word). LIke literally hundreds just packed in with signs with names on them. We looked for "missionaries" "the church of jesus christ of latter day saints" everything but we didn't see anything. Bear in mind this is at 1 in the morning so we're all super tired. Well, actually, the other 3 missionaries seemed exhausted and scared but, for some weird reason, I was excited, energetic and happy. I think I was probably pretty annoying to them ha. But we waited there, looking for someone to pick us up for 2 hours! And no one ever came! THey were supposed to come pick us up and take us to the Manila Airport HOtel for the night but no one came. So we got a taxi, hecharged us 30 bucks (which is like heaps of pesos, so he made bank) and he took us there. He spoke almost no english so it was a bit of a struggle but I loved it haha I was just laughing the whole time.
At the hotel, we got a room in like a little cottage thing made of bamboo. It was actually really nice! COld shower though. Elder Naulu was waiting inside and it took like 5 minutes of knocking to wake him up since it was 3 in the morning. He had been there since 6 pm! Elder Mo'unga showed up after that. He's tongan from New Zealand. That night we stayed up until 4:45 am talking all about the similiarities and differences between America, Australia, and New Zealand. I could tell you all about Australia but I'll save that for another time.
THe next morning, A bunch of tongan Sisters woke us up at 5. We didn't really understand what was going on but we got ready, ate breakfast (the best bacon ever, Krista), and went to the MTC. Ok. Timeout. THe traffic here is INSANE. Just everyman for himself. Except everyone's really nice when driving. So they always let you in. Ha we traveled to the MTC with SIster Rea and Sister McKim from Australia. Elder CHristiensen and I were just dying at their accents the whole way haha and they were hilarious.
We finally got the the MTC and started Orientation. It was just a whirlwind of getting ready. They made me get another shot, a Filipiino haircut (the barber wanted me to take him back to America in my suitcase because his dream is to cut hair there), and we got our NAMETAGS!!!! I've never been so excited. It was like Christmas! but 100 degrees! I hate that they use celcius and the metric system here btw. I don't understand it at all.
I found out that Elder Naulu is kasama ko (my companion). Like i said, he's full tongan from Australia and he's really nice. Throught the last week, we've found out that we're sooooo much alike. We both love sports, (him rugby, me basketball), we both have similar beliefs and habits, and all kinds of stuff. He's been a member all his life. I love him already! I'm the senior kasama even though he's 21 and I'm 19.
We got assigned to our Districts! I'm in Abinadi District. There are 2 Elders and 4 Sisters so we Elders are like their big brothers, protectors. I already love all of the people in my DIstrict so much. I'm the DIstrict leader so I'm still getting used to the added responsibility but they've all been so supportive that it's been fairly easy so far. Sister Thomas and SIster Tuione turned out to be in my district! There' also SIster Foukimoana and Sister Kinikini from tonga. Nagkakatawatayo! (They're so funny!). THey say that I should come to Tonga because I act like a Tongan. I love it!
I've made a ton of friends here already. I talk to the TOngans a lot. Sister Hafoka and Sister Tonga'onevai are so funny. We're always joking. I talk to natives a lot and try to learn new words and phrases sa Tagalog. It's been going really well! Elder Mendiola is unreal at basketball. He's only like 5' 6'' but he's AMAZING at dribbling, passing, and shooting. He's taught me a lot of Tagalog and we always laugh and make jokes.
LIke the 2nd day, we had to teach our first progressing investigator. We were told that she was a real investigator. She spoked almost only Tagalog. SUper nice though! We taught by the Spirit and actually had a pretty good lesson! The 2-4 visits with her, I was able to understand 95% of what she was saying to us. It was incredible. I have no idea how. ha well besides the kaloob ng mga wika ( the gift of tongues).We were able to express all that we wanted in broken Tagalog.n have pretty basic conversations with people and I can actually tell pretty good jokes! Joke-lan means joke here so we're always saying it after things ha It's like our District joke. I can pray and bear my testimony in Tagalog too!
I'm already starting to understand how sentences are formed and it's really fun to try to guess sentences right! My goal is to be able to make sentences while speaking nex week, like compound sentences.
THe other night, we watched the Joseph Smith movie. I never realized how much he endured. I was crying and I've never felt the spirit so strongly. In our DIstrict meeting after, I felt impressed to have a testimony meeting. We were all bawling but it was the most incredible moment here so far. I could barely speak, the Spirit was so strong.
Since then, all of our visits with progressing investigators have gone really well. We got Sister Cassandra, our first investigator (who turned out to be our new teachr) to commit to baptism. She was crying a ton the last visit because of the Spirit. My kasama at ako (my kasama and I ) are really able to play off of ech other extremely well and invite the spirit. AFter our last lesson, We had a huge hug and he was crying and telling me how much of an example I am to him. My District members are always telling me what an example I am and how strong I am. It's extremely humbling to have people looking up to me.
We went to the temple the other day! It's beautiful but a lot smaller than Timp or Salt Lake. The Endowment room was crazy small! I felt so at home though, knowing that the ordinances and the endowment were the exact same here as in Alpine, Ut.
OUr teacher, Brother Morales, is so funny! He's a native from Cebu and he speaks a lot of Tagalog to us and now I'm able to understand almost all of what he says to us. It's amazing. I've been praying daily for the gift of tongues and it's really been coming for me. I can introduce my self super fast now. Ako po si Elder Armatage. Siya po ang kasama ko. Mga misyonero po kami ng Simbahan ni Jesucristo ng mga banal sa mga Huling Araw.
People always say that the MTC is super hard but it hasn't been that bad so far! I'm just bracing myself. Welll, my time's almost up!
I love you all os much, I miss you and I pray for you every day!
Paalam!
So good to hear that everyone's doing good! I miss you all! I'll pray for Maui Chill! Tell everyone I miss them like crazy and that I love them!
Mahal Kita Barb! Salamat po para ang travel snacks you sent with me! They little messages on all of them were so nice! (as the TOngan sisters would say "so cute!")
Kitakits mamayat! (see you later!)
