Week 6

 

I'm getting this out a few days later than usual! A few more weeks in the MTC!

Here's his letter:

 

 

 

Hello everyone, keep dr eldering me and telling me how your doing I love it! Sounds like its Bianca's stressful dance week! I miss everything about dance. My roommate just left to San Diego cause he got his mission call change because of infection of the eye. It was really sad to see him go. Like really sad, and he taught me how to Machata SO good haha. Tell Kevin Congratz and that if he needs a babysitter in the future I owe him an entire childhood haha. Except I've never changed a diaper before... D & C 88: 117-141, I want my home to be like this. read it!

So my new favorite scripture is D & C 45:3-5, it is Jesus pleading for our souls to the father, read it and love it! I have came so close to Christ. While I was doing initiatory (can't spell that) I could feel the presence of the people whom I was conferring the blessing upon the spirit and it was a great experience. My favorite quote is "RETURN WITH HONOR!" and there's nothing that could take me away from this work.

Once again, it just seems like everyone in the gym just wants to fight so now I just go play volleyball outside in the sand pits, they have NICE beach volley ball, but without a beach haha.

So I have a good "musical" spiritual thought for you all. When I am about to perform in front of many people its SO important to tune my bass or guitar. I'm sure you know that if two notes are playing and they are even slightly out of tune it sounds HORRIBLE. Ask any orchestra nerd like me. Its the same with your spirit, if you are just slightly out of tune with the spirit it doesn't work at all. and especially for me since I need to be on the same tune as my investigator. I have been really trying to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Elder Anderson sharde a good story about President Monson. He was going to a stake meeting and he had an impression to go visit someone who was on their death bed in the hospital. He acknowledged the prompting but didn't want to miss the stake presidents talk so he stayed and as soon as the president began to talk his prompting grew even stronger so to be nice to the stake president he decided to wait until he was done speaking. As soon as he was done speaking he sprinted to the hospital to an empty bed and the nurse said he had passed away 45 minutes earlier. And the nurse said, "are you brother Monson? and he said yes" and she said "he was calling for your name before he died". From that point on he ALWAYS listened to the promptings. Even Brother Anderson said that no matter whats going on, if president Monson has a prompting he'll fulfill it and leave meetings or anything of great importance to do it. In my life I had a prompting to go out a certain door that was a longer route to my residence. While I was walking I got to see the most beautiful sunset and stars I had ever seen with the temple and mountains in the background. It made me happy and I know that that was God sending me there so he could put a smile on my face. Listen to the spirit, all :) I love you all! Mahal ko kayo! Ingat! Expect letters everyone! (Bianca Aroha Bryan mom dad) hahaha.

 

After I posted the last letter he posted this:

 I just heard neil l anderson talk... so amazing... my life is changed. Tell everyone. It was amazing!!!! And its presidents monsons 85th birthday haha

I love hearing the excitement coming from him!

Posted Tues. Aug. 21st

Week 5

I'm so amazed at how fast he's learning the language and writing it! I need to ask a filipino friend of mine if this actually tagalog! LOL

Here's the letter:

So this week was pretty good. Just got back from the temple, it was a good session, learned some new things. I am always trying to do service for others. I always put the goals away after gym time, always put away the volleyball nets, always hold the door open, give people my food, and let people cut me in line. Because the verse in the book of mormon hit me sooo hard. It said that the last will be first, and the first will be last. So I'm taking it literally in everything I do. That's why I get up in the morning last ;) haha, its been SOOO hard to wake up... :/ So here is my testimony in Tagalog. I know Aroha asked for it so Ill just type it for everyone.

Alam ko po na totoo po ang simbihan ni jesucristo ng mga banal sa mga huling araw. Alam ko po na mapagmahal po ang diyos at si jesucristo. Alam ko po na ipinanumbalik na po ang simbahan ni Jesucristo sa pamamagitan ni joseph Smith. Alam ko po na sa pamamagitan ng pagabayad-sala ni jesu cristo, puwede naligtas po tayo. Alam ko po na mahalaga po and panalangin at aklat ni mormon tayo. Alam ko po na ipinadala tayo ng Diyos sa mundo, upang matuto at umulad, upang matuto at umunlad, kailangan po tayo magdasal at mag basa ng aklat ni mormon araw araw. Alam ko po na tinutulungan po ng Diyos at kanyang mga anak dito sa mundo. Nagbayad-sala po si jesucristo para sa kasalanan natin, at mahal ko po siya. Sinasabi ko po ito, sa pangalan ni Jesucristo, Amen.

 I'm not gonna translate it so good luck! haha. I love you all and miss you and have grown such a strong testimony here! 

 Well it's time for me to get my laundry! Love you all!

I can't believe it's week 4!! Almost a month since he went into the MTC! I love the stories and hearing of his growth every week.


Week 4

Hey so another week just went bye... Wow... Congrats to Holly and Kevin for having there baby boy!! Tell him I wish I was there to meet him! Was I close to a right guess on his facebook thing?  I've already ruined 2 shirts... Haha sorry... I wrote Bianca! She should have gotten it!

So my Tagalog is improving like CRAZY. I can pretty much say whatever I want and it's amazing to see the miracle of the gift of tongues. So right now there are already 3 missionaries that got a mission call change or are going home. Crazy huh? I'm not going home even if I get cancer! Some good scriptures to read are Luke ch 6.

 So the cool thing about Tagalog is that we can understand Spanish, but Spanish speakers can't understand us! haha. But I can speak good enough Spanish to communicate so it's perfect! So there is this really inspiring person in my district. He's from Scottsdale Arizona, his name is Brett Patrick. He has only been a member of the church for just over 1 year. Lets just say he made some mistakes in his life. He's the kinda guy you would NEVER mention the church too because he would just make fun of it. He was literally the LAST person you would expect to be mormon. He partied and did all the things that are involved with that. 3-4 years ago he started dating a girl who used to be mormon. She was inactive at the time and didn't hold the standards of the church either. But after 3 years of dating, the missionaries went to their house. 4 months of them coming hadn''t changed him at all but it changed his girlfriend. Then one visit he said he prayed about the Book of Mormon and he found it to be the word of god. He said it scared him. But he didn't deny it. Later, after all the visits and lessons it went from the missionaries calling him all the time to him calling the missionaries all the time. He was then baptized. This was only a year ago. Then Elder Holland of the 12 gave a life changing talk to him. Is said EVERY worthy young man is Called by God to serve a mission. This struck him so hard that he told his girlfriend of 4 years that he wanted to go. He is 23 years old! He's now going to be one of the most effective missionaries because of his story. He still accidentally says cus words on the basketball court but we all just remind him who he is and just laugh about it. The WHOLE gym gets quiet haha. Anyways, speaking of the gym, me and my friend Elder Reynoso are the Volleyball KINGS. Bump... Set.. and everyone runs away hahaha. My friend Reynoso is the best setter so I just SLAM it. hahah, like my dad used slam dunk it on me when I was 5 years on playing basketball with him hahaha. Well I'm almost 100 pgs into Jesus the Christ and I feel like a genius haha. Its amazing. I'm also reading the New Testament with it. I''m trying to get through Isaiah as well. EVERYTHING is starting to make sense to me. EVERYTHING. The Book Of Mormon makes sense to me finally haha. I can tell it from the start to finish without breathing. It goes back and forth and back and forth going forward in time and back in time all over the place and I can finally understand it all haha.

 Love you!

Week 3

 

I can't believe it's been 3 weeks!!! Here's another letter from Elder Kapeliela. Please write him if you can, go to Dear Elder...address below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

----- So It's Tuesday and I just got back from the temple. It was very nice, the temple reminds me of the Seattle one but it doesn't have exalaters :( After the session we went and got breakfast and a nice Japanese Chef gave me waffles with a smilie face made from whipped cream and strawberries :)) So mom, the plane ride was good, I sat next to an elder Kimball and yes he is related to the prophet like my roomate and although he was off a bit he was really kind and intelligent. He knew a whole President Monson talk from memory and gave me the whole talk, it was really cool. After that we challenged each other to memorize a couple scriptures so we did that too. After that I passed out and woke up in Utah. When we landed we got picked up by a pissed off cab driver. He drove about 90 mph cussing and yelling at people and we got to the MTC in under 30 minutes. We were blessed that we didn't crash. Probably because there were 5 other elders with me.

I promise I'll have more to say when I'm in the Philippines. The last 2 districts just left haha they were all punks soo... phew. There are 79 more people coming within the next 2 weeks to our zone itself. It will be the biggest zone in the MTC haha. 2 kids from New Zealand and 1 from Australia. Theres been a huuuge rivalry from Aussies and Ameriacns in the leadership and I got to sign my name on this hand me down Milo can that says Leaders: Aussies vs AMericans haha. I'll show u a picture its hilarious. Its been a hand me down competition since like the 90s haha.

Recently I have been trying to study every oppurtunity I have. I have decided that there is just NOT enough time in a day to get what I want to accomplish done. I've been studying some Psalms, David is the only prophet that we know what kingdom he is going to after death. Poor David destroyed himself... It's really fun to read psalms. In fact I end up making my own songs out of the verses. In psalms the song Blessed be his name came from it (im already starting to ruin english sentance structure forgive me). All the Tagalog teachers here admit that you'll suck at english when you get back :( haha. I can't wait to go on a mission again when I'm older! The senior missionaries get NICE rooms to sleep in haha. I know because I have to clean them :/ haha.

 I got a cold the day after you sent me those cough drops. So way to go mom, you got those to me RIGHT on time. I also twisted my ankle :/ sorry dad, I played in running shoes. But a couple days later with icing and only doing crunches since I couldn't run my foot was fully healed. I dont know how but it was a miracle and I can run like an Ethiopian again. Speaking of Ethiopian the ONLY person to give me Olympic updates is Aroha, so step it up everyone!

The Maori kids name is Poe-Laulu, he was rude to me in the temple even!! I said mahal kita... thats it... hahaha. I want a scrap book! and I want candy! and I want letters! You can send me dear elders more than once a day ya know! You could send a, Good morning, or a have a nice lunch, or a study hard! They print them out at 4 so try and send before that if you want me to see it that day. and dad! great story! I loved that and will always remember that!)))) Bianca you'll get a letter on thursday k?! I promise, the mail takes FOREVER here, theres a new mail man apparently. I hope your ok. Read the book of mormon, its a book from Jesus Christ himself and its more than just a book, trust me. That book alone will make you want to become a better person.

Just keep sending dr elders everyone theyre sooo nice. I got 6 the other day from Aroha mom bryan joel and dad. Oh and Brady's step brother? He's really cool. Thank you everyone! Mahal Kita!!

It sucks to have to go but my time has expired. :/ I have to go do my laundry now :/  Love all of you! Ingat ka! Mahal kita!

2 weeks

This is not the field so there's really nothing to talk about except the temple this morning was awesome and the food after was the best food I've had in weeks. Sundays are my favorite day because I get to go to choir with all of my BYU-H friends. Then after that we get an awesome devotional and the speakers are ALWAYS good. The organists are also the best musicians EVER. They improvise everything it's awesome! I got to talk to him after! After devotional is movie night. We got to watch Testaments! It's such a good movie! Watch it!

So for personal study I read Jacob through Mormon. Those are my new favorite passsages. I strongly prefer for you to read them! They set up everything so nicely!

Hey dad, that mighty spirit finally hit me last Sunday! I knew exactly what you were talking about now!

So the temple here was pretty much exactly like the Seattle temple except there were no exalaters :( So we got a new teacher yesterday so that now we have 2 teachers for the day. He's a Filipino American and served in Manila. His name is brother Lacenienta. He's super funny and can relate to everyone. The other teacher is brother Mauzy and he always has a smile on his face. Oh and I'm ONLY allowed to speak my language so that's going well. I'm already saying anything I want without needing to read things. I'm the vocab game champion at the moment haha. and my pronunciation is PRIME thanks to my Hawaiian roots haha. Me and preach my gospel have had some fights and disagreements but we're finally starting to get along. Except yesterday we kinda got in a fight again. As district leader I challenged everyone to finish the book of Mormon and the Preach my gospel by the middle of August. I think we can do it! For Judy Swensen, my scriptures already look 10 years old! haha. Ya I know... Hey mom, I challenge YOU to finish the Book of Mormon in August too!! It was the most life changing experience I've ever had! Now I need to finish "Preach my Gospel". I'd rather have a book called "Ed Kapeliela's" teaching guide though.... Much rather... I gave a lesson on faith Sunday and it was POWERFUL since the topic was faith and I gave my farewell talk on faith. I had awesome experiences to share with everyone as well as Greg Laurie's awesome story. If you don't know what it is search "Greg Laurie He's still here" I think? This MTC is the best place on earth! Honestly though... EVERYONE needs to come through here. EVERYONE. It has changed my life sooo much and I don't know how I could have not gone on a mission. I've never wanted to do good more than anytime in my life. TO ALL, to be truly happy you need to focus entirely on someone else. Do not care about yourself or you'll be miserable. Just some more simple truths, "your body IS a temple". Its not a figure of speech, its not a joke, its TRUE doctrine. I think you all know what that means. All of these things have been on my mind lately. I'm not signaling out anyone, just speaking my mind since I have something to type on. Anyways I gotta go to take my P-day nap now! Love you all! See you in a week!
Mom, tell Kerri she's awesome! I will reply to her when I can! A sister Jordyan Wilkins says she heard of Laynie. Shes a sister in my district. Love you! Send me emails that I can reply to mommy! My times up : INGAT KA! MAHAL KITA!

2 weeks already!!?

2 weeks out!! It really seems like he has been out much longer!! He continues to grow and learn, and he's so happy and loving it there still!!!
I love that Elder!

Mom :-)