Week 8

Hey everyone, 


I'm out in the field now. It's been really cool. So my first area is Bautista and the people are great. It's hot, but not very bad actually, I enjoy it so far (probably because its not the hot season yet). My trainer Elder Hilis and I live on the floor of an apartment which is actually outside our zone, but the old one was too messed up according to President Espinosa. Sorry this is a short email. It's great out here though. I'm excited to work even though I can't speak Tagalog yet. At least I'm in a Tagalog area and not an Illocano one.

It's been good,

me

first picture is my kasama elder Hilis

second picture is me and Elder Terry from HB

third picture is what the Urdaneta Temple is going to look like

First Week in the Philippines

Kamusta mga tao,

Well, I'm here in the Philippines now and the MTC here has been pretty great. We left San Francisco at 11pm on Monday and got to the Philippines at 6am on Wednesday. Someone should let me know what happened Tuesday because I kind of skipped it. Anyway, the second we got off the plane we immediately felt the humidity, and we were indoors in the airport. I for sure missed the warmth though. We took a bus to the Manila MTC and the traffic is super crazy here. Manila is a really cool city, and you can see the skyscrapers from our dorm.

Right when we got to the Manila MTC we had breakfast (which was delicious, but also weird because it didn't feel like 9am. Right after breakfast we were just in time to watch the Tuesday night devotional in Provo where we got to here from Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He spoke to us about us being called by revelation and I really believe it. The rest of the day was long, but I learned a lot and then took an accidental and not allowed 3 hour nap before exercise time, but it worked out because I passed out at 8:50pm and slept until 6am which is when we get up (I guess that's what not sleeping more than 4 hours in a 3 day period will do for you). 

Thursday we had a surprise visit/devotional/concert from David Archuleta, so it was pretty cool to see him again, and I took some notes about how I can be a better missionary. 

We've gone to the temple visitors center at least 3 times now to talk to people and teach mini-lessons and I do not know very much Tagalog turns out. On the bright side, everyone here understands English super well, and Taglish is a real thing here.

The food here is great, and we already have had rice with every meal since we've been here. I might get fat out here, but it'll be worth it because the food is amazing. 

Next time I email I think I'll be out in the field. The Philippines is already great I love it here and the people are all so nice.

Until we meet again,

-me

the first picture is the snow we woke up to our second to last day in Provo, that I only saw after I thought about how I was going to make fun of all the people who told me it was going to snow because it hadn't snowed and I was leaving. #ironic

the second picture is the view of the temple with Manila in the background

the third picture is us at the Manila Temple after we reserved our session for this afternoon (our new district)

Week 6

Hey everyone,

So I'm out of the Provo MTC on Monday, and I'll get to the Manila MTC on Wednesday morning. We get to completely skip Tuesday so that's fun stuff.

Lets see, this week was a good one. Tuesday night I sang in the MTC choir at the devotional and it was a really cool experience for a couple reasons. First, it was awesome singing in a choir with 845 other missionaries. Second, the song was "Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer" arranged by Brett Stewart who was my old choir director. It just brought back a lot of good memories singing in OCMCO, and I even have that exact song on my mission music playlist. That night, the devotional was about Faith and finding the balance between relying on yourself and relying on the Lord.

We also had the chance to teach a 30 minute lesson over Skype in Tagalog. We taught a person in Ohio, which was a little unexpected, but still a good lesson. Tonight, we teach another one, and hopefully this person is actually in the Philippines.

Well, I have to start my packing today. The next email is gonna be from the Philippines!

Still me,

Elder Collier

The first picture is the MTC's resident Four Square Champion Squad (and Elder Lucas who usually plays basketball)

The second picture is Elder Lucas and I with our favorite new Elders in the zone who are also going Tagalog speaking 

Week 5

Ten days!

Hey everyone, I guess this means it's been another week even though it really doesn't feel that long. This week has been a pretty good one.

Last Saturday (because we have Saturday nights off from class) we played kickball as a district and then we went up to the terrace on T3 (not that any of you really know where that is) and did face masks and played signs. It was some of the most fun I've had since I've been here. 

Also, this week we had a devotional from Matthew L. Carpenter who spoke at conference a few weeks ago. He spoke to us about companionship and it was really good. 

This week my kasama and I taught some really good lessons in Tagalog and I feel like I can do pretty okay for having only been doing it for 5 weeks. Tonight we have a lesson on Skype so we can teach an actual person in the Philippines. I'm way excited about it.

Sorry this is a short email, but we have a lot to do today! 

Ingat!

-Elder Collier 

The first picture the one Sister Marchese is in. She was nice enough to give us all the face masks she was sent.

The second picture is a fun Filipino nursery rhyme that we learned in class. Its fun.

The third picture is our district minus Sister Marchese who took said picture

Progress

Hey everyone!

It's Friday so that means another email from yours truly. It's been a pretty great week actually!

Monday the rest of our zone left/ so for a few days it was just the 13 of us (Elder Castileijos is going to San Francisco Tagalog speaking so his district all left to the Manila MTC so now he's in our district his last week). Monday we got to teach another person all in Tagalog and it was way cool. We taught a man named Tito and I understood enough of what he said to be able to respond and it made me feel way better about my very limited Tagalog skills.

Tuesday we got to hear from an Apostle, Ulisses S. Soares and it was a really powerful experience, especially after the devotional when my district went to discuss it and all shared the ways we feel the spirit in our lives. It was one of the strongest feelings of the Holy Ghost that  I've ever felt in my life.

Wednesday I got to host incoming missionaries and it was really fun to be able to greet people and show them around and try to help the ones who are freaking out calm down. One of the ones I hosted is even going to the Philippines!

Thursday we got to teach again (this time just to our teacher) and I felt really good about it. She speaks in just Tagalog and pretends not to know what we say in English - except for words we actually don't know how to say. We went in with a vague outline of what we were going to say, but as she asked questions I was able to understand and respond in like 90% Tagalog - and it wasn't even a little bit close to grammatically correct but I was super proud about it because I understood a lot and was able to improvise answers to her questions.

The first picture is us right after we played a fun game of district kickball

The second picture is a random selfie Elder Zaugg took with us and the elders who just left

Its me

-Elder Collier

MTC Life

Hey everyone, 

I'm pretty sure its the middle of my third week here, but the days and weeks all kind of blend together.

This week has been pretty good though. 2.5 of the 3 other districts in our zone (about 30 people) left for the Manila MTC on Monday, so the dorms have been pretty quiet and it's weird. I got to be pretty good friends with a lot of them, so there were some sad goodbyes. But, we did get a fan in our room from some of the people who left so that was great.

 Everyone in our district got callings (because there was no one else to get them) and so now my kasama and I are in charge of setting up the sacrament each week.

I'm learning a lot of Tagalog, and this week, because we started intermediate core, I've been working on memorizing at least 60 words a day. We've taught a few lessons in Tagalog, and I'm getting a lot better about being able to understand whats said and then being able to respond to it.

Fun fact, at a workshop on Thursday, I worked with an Elder going to the Olongapo Philippines mission, and we (when asked to find the most unique thing we had in common) figured out that our Mom's had the same middle name. At that workshop we also learned about using technology in missionary work, but the mom thing was the highlight (mostly because we won't have technology to use in the Philippines).

Overall it was a good week. We're all working hard and just trying to SYL (Speak Your Language (Tagalog)) as much as possible. We get 21 new kids on Wednesday, and they're all going to the Philippines too, but all different missions.

Last but not least, although we don't have our flight plans yet, we found out that we head to the Manila MTC on the 12th of November! We're all ready to go now, but we can wait until then.

Paalam,

Elder Collier

The first picture is of the boys of Room 231

The second is of our district temple trip today

Week 2

Hey everyone, 

Its me again. This week has been a good one. General Conference this past weekend was great, even though we did watch it sitting in a gym. The entire MTC was convinced that China was going to be opened for missionary work, and even though it didn't happen it was still a really good conference. 

The language has been coming along pretty well, but it's a hard one. I keep accidentally trying to use Spanish or Mandarin every once in a while but I'm getting better at going right to Tagalog. Our district has a list of words that are bawal (not allowed) in English so we can only say them in Tagalog. Tomorrow we have a test on about 400 words and phrases that we have been working on this past week, so I need to do some more practicing. Yesterday we had our first grammar lesson and learned the first two of 30ish different kinds of verb conjugations so that's a party. But Tagalog is super fun to speak. For anyone who wants an example of Tagalog, one of the first words we learned was 'panampalataya' which means faith. It's been a challenge, but I already love the language.

We've learned how to get to know people using Tagalog and the other day our class went outside to practice on random people on campus. The thing was, the teacher didn't tell us (and none of us were smart enough to think of it)  to ask if we could practice Tagalog on them, so we kind of just stopped people walking down the sidewalks and started speaking a language they didn't know. It was super funny once we had all realized what we were doing.

So yeah, the week has been good. My kasama (companion) and I have a good working schedule now and we try to use Tagalog as much as we can. I literally had a dream I was studying Tagalog

It hailed this week and just to let you all know, hail is dumb, and so is the cold. Also, we got our Aklat Ni Mormon's this week which is super nice even though I can't read it yet because of the sentence structure.

That's it for this week

-Elder Scott Collier

P.S. I ran out of Oreo's this week and I definitely wouldn't hate anyone who sent me some more of them (or literally anything if we're being honest)

The snow on the mountains was way pretty but I'm glad its gone now because its "warm" again. 

We have a lot to study and I keep the basic core and a notebook to write new words in in my pocket

Our tags in the Philippines are in English because that's what the people are used to, but we have tags that let people know what we're speaking and to speak it if they know how

First Official Preparation Day Email

Hey everyone,

I'm here on day 3 in the MTC and it's going well so far. This one is going to be kind of short because I have only been here for three days and I also have 76 words in Tagalog to have memorized by tonight. We're just jumping right in. SO as you can probably tell because I'm writing this today, Fridays are my P-Days. I went to the temple this morning and it was great. My kasama (companion) is Elder Lucas from Lincoln Nebraska and he refuses to acknowledge how much better Southern California is than Nebraska, but other than that we get along great. Out of the 2000 missionaries who came in with us (or the total here I'm not sure which) something like a third of them are going to the Philippines, how dope is that? Out of the 12 people in our district, 10 of them are going to Urdaneta, including myself, but the other two elders are pretty cool as well (they're my roommates and I like them). Most of my dorm is going Tagalog speaking so we hear it from other elder's all the time which is good. I'm way stoked to be here, and the food's pretty okay too. 

Ya boi,

Elder Collier

Oh, I almost forgot, because there are so many missionaries going Tagalog speaking they ran out of scriptures, Preach my Gospels, and Tagalog-English Dictionaries, so that's sad, but I hope I get them soon.

Picture one is me and My Kasama at the Temple and the second one is my desk with all my stuff, minus the extra books we still don't have.

Week 0

Hey guys,

I've been here for like 30 minutes and I've already had awkward scripted conversations in Tagalog. It's a party! I don't know when I'll write more than this short email but so far its great! I'm stoked!

Love,

Elder Scotty Collier