Pagkakaroon ng masaya (having fun)

Here it has been so fun but at the same time it really is hard!! One of my good friends is Elder Loy (picture from the previous post) to answer that.  He's a way cool guy.  The guys here are just all so cool!! The batch (group) above us just left and I swear they reminded me so much of my friends back home.  There was a guy who reminded me of Tanner Burton (neighbor).  It was fun because we just talked about the coolest stuff.  There is a guy who reminds me of Josh Margetts (neighbor) because he seems like the guy who would get all the ladies!  hahahaha  Oh, tell Josh if he doesn't email me once, when I get back I might just beat him up!  Just a possibility!! haha  I want to hear from the people on the running team also!! SO TELL THEM OR SOMETHING!! Thanks for that!!

Elder Loveland, Elder Hedman and Elder Elms

These 2 were like my favorite before they just left for their mission!!!

It's cool here because I can email anyone so I have been talking to Easton  (his cousin serving his mission in Grand Rapids, South Dakota)!! And Latu (neighbor serving in Anchorage, Alaska, Tongan speaking)!!  I miss Latu.  That guy was just awesome.  What a funny guy!!  I can't wait till we get back.  We are going to party together!!

Elders Bartel?, Jensen, Loveland, Loy, Callister & Hedman

So the language is coming pretty good!!  I feel like I'm starting to understand a lot more.  I love my 2 teachers!!  They are the best ones here no doubt!!  They teach in a way that I actually understand.  Which is what I worried about when I thought of learning a language!!  But they really are so cool, they help a lot.   They are also our investigators.  It's cool to see how we get personal insight from them about the things going on and what we need to work on!!


My companion and I do a pretty good job I think.  When we practice in English, I feel like I'm the most amazing person ever because I'm just pro from going to all the mission prep classes!  But then once it gets to Tagalog, I know what I want to say to help them personally but it's so hard to try and translate it so they can understand and know that its personalized for them!!   But it is so worth all the hard work when you see that they are understanding you and your work has payed off!!


I love the language!  When I get back,  Uncle Tim (his uncle served a mission to Manila Philippines) and I are gonna have secret conversations and no one is going to understand what we are saying because we will be the only ones who know!


I miss you guys a lot still.   I'm gonna send a separate email about the really cool thing that happened so I can focus on that.   But I still haven't gotten anything in the mail.  It just takes forever!  So emails are great!  Put a crap load of pictures of Jesus and stuff on things you send.   Because then they won't get into them.   I miss you guys.  I miss just relaxing and having fun!!  I will start working on that other email now!!  Miss you guys and love you!!   REMEMBER I AM THE BEST!! (: Thank you.


Elder Hedman
 
He wrote this in a separate email:

Ok, now for the spiritual thing that happened this week!! 

So on Wednesday, we got to go out proselyting.  Wow, it was the most amazing thing that I have ever done in my life!!  The spirit was just so strong and it was something that I have never experienced before.  At the MTC, I don't feel like I'm really a missionary because we don't really do anything about teaching people who aren't really in the church.  They are just fake investigators.  But when we got to go out, we taught real people who were interested in the Gospel!!  I had a companion who has only been out for 3 months and so his Tagalog isn't the best either.  But we were able to communicate with basically everyone!   I was pretty shy and didn't say to much but it was so cool!! 

The kids here just follow us around because they have never seen white people.  So they just follow us and we talk to them.  It is so funny because they just laugh and run off when I say something because I say it weird!  The people just point at you and giggle and laugh just like Uncle Tim said they would!!   And it is so cool!!   I love seeing the people here.  They really are so nice!

We only had 1 investigator that we were able to talk to.  She was a girl around 20 and we couldn't go into her house because we didn't have another member there that was a guy, so we just talked to her on her doorstep.  (They don't allow members of the opposite sex be alone together for safety reasons.)   She is getting baptized on Saturday.  So it's so cool to see how she is accepting the gospel and is going to be a strong member!   I really love the people here they are so fun to talk too.   It makes me kinda hate the MTC because it feels like prison.  When we go out there,  we can talk to anyone and just tract if we don't have anyone to teach.   So he showed me around and we handed out some pamphlets of the gospel.  We got like 7 return appointments for Sunday!!  So it was way cool getting to see the people and meet them.   I really can't wait to get out into the mission field!  It's going to be so great!!  I love you guys and miss you!! 

Elder Hedman