Happy Thanksgiving!
This week was fairly exciting, although more of the same. Since last week most of our time was spent in class learning more of the Bisayan language. Our teachers are absolutely amazing, but learning one specific thing for all hours of the day can become monotonous. I was able to join the choir as a bass and we performed at two devotionals where general authorities spoke. On Tuesday we got to listen to Elder Yamashita! He was a super enthusiastic speaker and he spent most of his talk walking throughout the audience. He was giving out candy to all those who answered his various questions. His talk centered around spending time with the members and getting to know them personally. The second devotional was Elder Quinton L. Cook! It was so exciting to hear a member of the twelve apostles speak! You could feel the spirit change as soon as he entered the room. He spoke on the 4 loves of missionary work. 1. Love your companion 2. Love the people 3. Love your mission president and his wife 4. Love the Lord. He discussed how doing the first three can show the Lord that you love him. The power that he spoke with was amazing and his testimony was truly inspiring. His wife also spoke about the hymns and how multiple use the same meter, 777D, and that you could swap words in different hymns to create something new. We sang the lyrics of "Come, ye thankful people" to the melody of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and it was really fun. I would recommend trying it out if you haven't. The rest of thanksgiving was also a blast. They served us a thanksgiving lunch and then we got to work doing service! We helped package hundreds of thousands of food packages for an organization called Hunger Fight. They were all super nice and it was a really fun experience. At night we had a surprise devotional and none other than Jon Schmidt showed up!!! It was such an awesome surprise and hearing his testimony along with his piano skills was really uplifting. When we left the building from that devotional they had put up all of the Christmas lights and let us wander through campus looking at the lights. It was probably one of the more fun thanksgivings I've had. I hope you all are doing well and I hope to hear from some of you soon! Kita-kits Amping! Elder Peter Wilhelm Hello Everyone!
The first week of the MTC is over and I am very excited to be one week closer to the Philippines. Missionary life has been extraordinarily interesting and at times hilarious. My district is truly full of hooligans (me included), and we have already had an endless supply of mission shenanigans. While most of our time is spent in the classroom learning Cebuano or native Bisaya, we have also read a good portion of the scriptures. The Bisayan scriptures are extremely hard to read. It doesn't use the language most people speak in the Philippines and uses a lalom or deep/older dialect that disobeys a lot of the conventional grammar of Cebuano. Learning Cebuano has been an experience to say the least. The words are abnormally long but whenever our district talks to each other it is truly a spectacle. Among our favorite phrases is Makagagahom Kaayo ka! It simply means You are powerful, but we constantly use it to describe our statements when studying the scriptures. Learning this language can be quite discouraging at times though. A multiplicity of teachers have told me and my companion that we will not end up using this language and it is simply the closest thing to Wa'ay Wa'ay (The language we will be speaking) that they have. It is already abnormally difficult to pick out words and phrases from native speakers when I have trained in the language, but with almost no language training it is going to be a true challenge. I have faith, however, that the Savior will provide a way for me and my companion to learn the language. Learning about the spiritual gifts that are available to us as we follow the covenants we make has helped me have confidence that the Lord is on my side. My companion is truly hilarious. He's about as tall as Mt.Timpanogos and the phrases he uses are truly riveting. Among my favorite are Aww man (in response to nearly everything), thats tough, geemani Christmas, and a variety of others. Because none of us have access to the internet on our phones, most of my district has elected me as the surrogate google. They simply say Elder Wilhelm and ask a question and I have to answer it to the best of my abilities. Being a makeshift siri has helped me have empathy for the poor alexa robot who has to answer dumb questions all day. It's truly been a blast the past week and I hope to from some of you this week! Until then Daghang Salamat ug Amping! Elder Peter Wilhelm |