WOW it's already been a month! The first week went by really slowly, but the past month has gone by fast. Already my birthday is coming up this sunday and I'll soon be 20. I have p-day on Monday, so i'll be able to tell everyone how it went. Let's just hope that I get some nice presents in the mail.
So far though, we've had to let go of some of our best new friends in the MTC. I talked about them in my last blog, but this week we had a going away party for them, it was a great last day with them and I'll miss them all.
My last night with the district before us was a memorable one. We were able to get L&L's Hawaiian barbeque brought to us so we had about $11 worth of food there, plus $50 worth of candy and chips and Polynesian foods and a bunch of soda's. We all stayed in the same room and slept the night there (about 10 people fitting into a room for 4). We moved the beds out from their rooms and slept together. IT wasn't easy because a few of them snore REALLY loud. The next day we gave them a good send off at the buses and waited there till the bus was gone. The next few days were really somber, but we've moved on.
As a district, we've improved. Our opinions have been voiced and we've worked out a way to coexist. Things are starting to look brighter now. It's still difficult being upbeat all the time when you miss home a lot. I also kind of wish I could have gone to a less exotic country. somplace like France, Italy, China, Russia or Japan. I see people here going to beautiful countries and I get disappointed, but I know that the Phillipines is beautiful in it's own sense. Hopefully my experience here will help me in the furutre, especially with the language. I don't want to use it for two years and then never need it again. Hopefully the language will help to open doors for me further along in life.
THe MTC diet is taking it's toll on me, I'm up to 240 but I've stopped eating as much. I'm still in good shape, so i think it's just that I've never had this much food in me at one time. I eat every meal and my rational is that I'll be starving in the Phillippines. When I come back hopefully I'll be very slim, down to 190 (maybe that's too small but we'll see) and I'll be nothing but pure muscle again. I keep thinking about going back to football afterwards, so I'm working out as much as I can. I really wish they us throw footballs, because then I would be practicing long snapping with elder Ionane.
Speaking about working out, I'm going to try for the bench press record tomorrow. The record right now is pressing 150 lbs 105 times in a row. I was able to do 120 last week without actually preparing, it was sorta just a practice run because I didn't have the trainer count for me. Hopefully this week i'll be able to do a respectable amount and hold the record for a while.
The snow has pretty much melted away now, there are a few spots where they shoveled the snow that haven't melted, but those don't count. The field is clear enough to run on, so we could go there if we wanted to. IT's still cold though, especially for a Phoenician.
I would like to thank the young women for the hearts and cookies and pictures that they sent. I really enjoyed looking at the pictures and reading the hearts. I'm not too big on sweets though, for some reaon i just don't like sugar too much (not only that but the MTC diet is doing a number on me) but that's OK because my usos love the sweets. Personally, I would prefer power bars and sugar free gum. But I would like thank you for your thoughtfulness and consideration. I loved the package. It really does mean a lot to me!
In the fireside last night, the speaker talked about how there are four phases of the MTC and mission field. So far, I'm past the honeymoon phase, and past the hostile phase and now I'm in the gin and bear it phase. I hope to soon get into the endure to the end phase, because then my work will come easier to me. Other than that, life here has been the same old same old.
By the way, let me know how things are going over there, I like to hear back from home, but the mail here is really slow and the dear elders are VERY unreliable unless you specify everything. I have a very common name and they always give me someone else's mail someone else probably always gets mine.
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