I freaking made it / Where the freak am I? (Week 7)

Well Hello!!

I made it to the Philippines MTC! The branch president is way cool and its amazing here. There are only 170 missionaries here in the MTC so they know everyone. 

It has been a long last couple of days. The flight to LAX wasnt too bad and we were able to place a book of mormon. That was way cool. The flight to Hong Kong on the other hand was absolute crap. I have never wanted to get off a plane so badly. the flight seemed to go on forever and it was just a no go. Luckily i wont have to do that for another 2 years. I can say ive been to china now though! We got Burger King in Hong Kong which was way weird. A burger drink and hash browns was 69 hong kong dollars (Like 9 american dollars). So i had to get hong kong money which is kinda cool. Then we had a 90ish minute flight down to Manila. The minute we got off the flight it was like a brick wall hitting us. The weather here is so brutal but there is no reason to complain bc its the next two years. We had to fill out a ton of papers for extending our passports and some missionaries got lost so we were in the airport for a long time getting everything together and then the adventure started. We all load up on a bus, there is 52 of us missionaries with the MTC president on the bus and man it was a mistake sitting in the front seat. I have never cringed and jumped and been so afraid in my entire life. The ONLY rule they have here on the road is "Biggest Car wins" and it is so true. No one stays in the lines or uses blinkers. It is a 4 lane road and there is 6 lanes of traffic. You are literally not even kidding 6 inches away from the car next to you. AND when you think oh wow there is a lot of space between me and that car a motorcycle comes out of no where lane splitting. The motorcycles go crazy everywhere. It started raining on the way to the MTC and i kid you not the motorcycles just stop in the middle of the highway under overpasses so they dont get wet. So that just causes tons of traffic and its madness. OH and there was an ambulance trying to get around and as soon as it passed us there was a good 15 motorcycles just trailing it. They dont care about anything they just go. It is so insanely scary i dont know how anyone drives there. I tried to take pictures of these things so ill send them in a little. We just got to the MTC and the fed us fish. Like a straight up fish its crazy but it was good. We checked into our rooms and Elder Labrum is still my companion for now. Tonight we have nothing going on because we are all wrecked from jet lag. The view from our room is so legit though so I am very happy with that. However tomorrow we have to be up for the 5:30 am temple session so rip. After that we are going on splits with legit missionaries. All the Manila missionaries come and do splits with us all day so tomorrow I will be street contacting! I am horrified but ill do my best! We are in the MTC until wednesday and then we are shipped out to our missions. I am very excited to get going but man the heat and language are going to be a struggle. Cavite is only 15 miles south of Manila where I am but its a 2 and a half hour Jeepnee ride so yippee. I dont know what else to say! The Church is true and I am excited to share it with so many people! all your thoughts and prayers and very much appreciated!! Love you all!!

Elder gsack

(Ps next time Ill be able to email is wednesday when I get to my mission. So late tuesday night for you guys)

Elder Rasband and Gerald on the flight to LAX


 Elder Sills, Kevin and Gerald on the train to the airport


Elder Olsen and I. We became close in the MTC and he is going to Cebu. Still has 3 weeks in the MTC

Gerald and some dope Hong Kong money 

dinner


Kevin and Gerald with room views


Thought this was funny


Crazies

Anim Week (Week 6)

Kumusta po Kayo!

I am finally leaving! This week has been lots of fun and it so nice to finally be able to say I am leaving. Ill be on and off the computer till about 1ish and then Im off to the airport.

This week I woke up Friday morning and I did not feel good at all. So I stayed in bed till about 10ish and then got up to go to the doctor. He prescribed me to a ton of Medication so I have been on it for the last couple days. Ill send a pic of all the meds I take its insane. However I am feeling a lot better. I got to walk to the BYU phramacy and that was quite enjoyable being able to walk away from the MTC and be in the real world. 

This whole week was just weird because all we could think was this is our last saturday or sunday or whatever day it was in America for a long time. Nothing else happened over the weekend though. I saw Logan, Kaitlin, Mallory, Jacob, Madison and my favorite Nora on Sunday and that was way cool to see them. I am very happy they came and saw me. 

Monday was a good day. At lunch I saw the Carrolls! I sat down and just talked to them for a good 20 minutes. It was really nice to just visit with them. They are lucky though they are only here for 10 days and then they leave. Their name tags are so insane it doesn't even look like a real language so i wished them the best of luck. Monday Night was Brother Giblettes last night teaching us. I really enjoyed him as a teacher. He always had the spirit with him and taught with power. It was an amazing experience to learn from him. He is all done teaching districts. We were his only district he will ever teach so that was a really cool thing. 

Tuesday was a crazy day. We spent the morning packing all our bags. I didnt think it was going to be much of a challenge but boy was i wrong. It is so hard to fold everything up and fit it all in. Both my bags were 30 and 35 for my first weigh. I just barely weighed my bags though and with all my books and Im taking a blanket for someone my bags are now 48 and 50. So rip. Tuesday afternoon was Sister Andelins last lesson with us. We went down to a room with a piano and she played a song called One Voice and sang at the same time. Ive never heard that song but it was so good. The spirit was so strong it was sweet. After that we had a short little testimony meeting with our district and it was really good. That night was the finisher of all time. For the devotional Quetin L Cook came! I got to see 4 different apostles! Him and his wife both spoke and they were each really good. He shared with us 4 loves every new missionary should have and whenever an apostle comes and speaks its amazing!

Random Fact: Pinkanakakapagpabagabag-damdamin. Yes that is one word. Try pronouncing it lol. The worst part about that word is its not like a random word. That is an every day conversational word. So rip me.

I leave the MTC here about 2ish. We go to the Airport and then we chill till our flight. Mom and Dad I know you guys are at work so im going to plan on calling you in the LAX airport. So you guys dont have to worry about it. If not email me back and tell me a time.

Mahal ko Kayo! I wish you all a happy week and please pray I dont die on this flight!!!!

Love,

Elder gsack

Elder Nelson and I. He lost a bet so he wore "Elder Sackley" for the whole day and it was quite fun. We convinced kids we were brothers lol

Kevin and Gerald are taking care of me and going to be my adventure buddies on this flight

Brother Giblette!

This is my twice a day pill intake. 4 salmon color is advil. 2 little red is Sudafed or something. The little pink in benedrill (yeah i dont know how to spell okay) and the big blue is the antibiotic. Yes I am drinking tons of water I know

Sister Andelin!

Lima Week (Week 5)

Yoohoo big summer blow out! This week has been rough. Im just ready to get the heck out of here. 

Last PDay Elder Labrum washed all his whites with a pen in the load so it ruined all his white shirts and a ton of his garments and all this other clothing so this week has been a lot of getting him new clothes and trying to fix the old ones. 

Friday was the day that gave us hope. I know you guys have already seen but we got travel plans on Friday!! That was really exciting. and is just the little push I need. Next Wednesday 9/20 Ill be able to call home while im at the airport. Sometime between 3ish-7 (My time) in SLC and then maybe able in LAX from like 8-11ish (your time) but im not sure. Just really excited to get out of here. A perfect example of how depressing it is here is Saturday night. I could see the stadium, I could hear the stadium, I could even hear the announcer but I could not see one player or the score board. So that really sucked and all i heard saturday nights was screaming and having no idea what was going on. 

On Sunday in church I was asked to do the sacrament. So I had to say the sacrament prayers in Tagalog and holy crap that is hard. The prayers are so much longer and I kid you not its just a super long tongue twister. So that was brutal. Then in distrist meeting or sunday school we all made a goal to overcome some kind of an addiction. Mine is popping my knuckles and may I tell you it is impossible. I find myself popping my knuckles without even realizing it so that sucks but I am doing it less and im making some progress. That night for the devotional Chad Lewis came. I dont know if you guys know who he is but He played at BYU and then went on to play with Andy Reid and the Eagles. He had some sweet stories and share awesome experiences. Probably one of the best devotionals yet. Later we went and watched a talk for our movie that night. We went and saw Recognizing the Spirit by Elder Bednar, I dont think you can find the talk anywhere but the MTC however it is an amazing talk. He shares three stories from when he was a young missionary, a stake president at the age of 40 and then an apostle at the age of 56. Pretty crazy but it was way good to hear. 

Monday and Tuesday all my english missionary friends left. So that was sad but needless to say our dorm is a lot quiet now that they are gone. The ones that left on Monday left at 9:15 in the morning so that wasnt to bad but the ones that left Tuesday left at 3:30 in the morning, And because we love them so much Elder Jarman and I both woke up and walked them to the travel office and said goodbye however I think i regret that. Once I got back to the dorm I couldnt fall back asleep so tuesday I was up from 3:30am to 10:30pm with NO naps. I almost died I think. They are all going to either Federal Way Washington or Colorado Springs. I took pictures with most of them so ill send those later. 

Now for packages. The brobergs sent me a dozen cinnamon rolls through dear elder and that was amazing. Tell them thank you so much for me I loved them. However Mom you sent me a good 35-40 cookies yesterday in that package (yes I got it thank you very much) and I was like wow that is a lot of cookies and we already have a ton of junk food. Then later in the afternoon yesterday I got another package slip and boom Emma and Mallory both sent me Chip cookies. So holy crap we have cookies for days. I feel so fat its ridiculous how much food we have. Also please dont send any more chip cookies because they are delivered on wednedsays only so I wont get them. Ill be gone :) 

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE DEAR ELDERS AND PACKAGES!!

Hope you are all doing well! Love you so much! Church is true! 

Love,

Elder gsack

Meet trap house. I was bored one day in class so i started trap house and then had to put up the renovations coming soon sign and then the next day it just exploded and took up the entire board and its legit. 

This is Elder Lewis. He is one of my english missionary friends. Hes from hawaii and hes going to Colorado springs

Just a fun pic, on the left closest to me is Jarman then Lewis then Hawkins. on the right is Labrum and then the two people not looking is Nelson and Ngalu

my desk!

all english missionaries that left at 3 in the morning. All going to Federal Way. Elder Smith (my favorite)

all english missionaries that left at 3 in the morning. All going to Federal Way. Elder Moore.

all english missionaries that left at 3 in the morning. All going to Federal Way. Elder Jolley

just went to the doctor and elder labrum got a wart frozen off. He is limping all over the place now

This is a game we play. We take spoons at meals and then walk around the campus and try to get them in peoples belt loops without them noticing. It seems really stupid but when youve been in the MTC 5 weeks, anything is enjoyable

Cookies for freaking days. I got all of this yesterday. 

Apat Week (Week 4)

Magandang Umaga Po! 

This week was for sure a little harder but the weeks are going by faster. Lots of crazy fun things happened this week. 

To start out the week our district leader just snitched on everyone. So Elder Labrum and I were supposed to teach district meeting (sunday school) on sunday so we started writing questions on the board and then a branch presidency member walked in and told us he was teaching and then continued to chastise all of our district for the next hour on things that we werent even doing. So that was pretty fun. Elder Labrums cousin was here and was leaving on monday morning so we went and said goodbye to him sunday night and he gave us his mini fridge! So we have a mini fridge with all kinds of things that very from martinellis to pudding cups and all the way to a cosco chocolate cake. Yes. A real cosco chocolate cake. 

Monday we were unsure if we were teaching or not and If i was speaking english i wouldnt really worry about it but we have to write out our lessons and translate them to Tagalog so planning a lesson takes a long time. Anyways we decided not to prepare a lesson and of course when we get to class we found out we were teaching. So we had to scramble to put something together and we went into the lesson with basically no notes and wow the gift of tongues is real. We probably taught our best lesson yet with no notes and it was so enjoyable just talking to the investigator and not worrying a lot about the language. You could really feel the spirit. After the lesson our teacher came up to us and just told us how impressed he was. He told us how he could feel the spirit so strongly and it was so much more powerful when we taught without notes. He was so excited he was asking us about what we were teaching next and just was really encouraging. It was awesome. 

Tuesday night for the devotional Dallin H Oaks came and spoke to us! Thats three apostles for me! Its amazing how an apostle can just walk in to the room and wow the spirit hits you like a brick. Its so cool. He talked a lot about missionary work. One quote that he shared was "100% of your investigators understanding is up to you." He then went on to talk about how we need to realize that investigators most likely dont know one gospel term. That they dont have any idea what we are talking about unless we explain it and walk them completely through it. It was an awesome devotional. 

Yesterday was a pretty fun day! we got to do service in the morning which is so funny. We just hide all over the place and its literally just 90 minutes of scaring each other. After service we went to exercise and wow that is a big stress reliever. We always play volleyball and ive never spiked the ball so hard in my entire life. I have Coach Mastrud to thank for my volleyball skills. I still got a little net games in me. After exercise we go to go and host new missionaries! That was a really cool experience but being the kid that has to pull away an elder from his crying family is not very fun. But seeing all the new misisonaries and hearing where they are from and where they are going is pretty cool. I was hoping i would see someone I new and a car drove past me, stopped and then a mom rolled down the window and said "Garrett?" and I said yes and just followed the car until it stopped. It turned out to be Sister Hyde? I think is her name. She told me how she used to be in our ward when dad was the bishop. So she took a picture with me and even though I really dont know her it was very nice to see her. 

I also saw Cristian Broberg and that was so awesome! II didnt know he was a teacher here in the MTC.

Just a heads up. I will get flight plans later this afternoon or tomorrow some time. I will leave Provo on September 20th. So I travel Wednesday, I dont have a thursday because ill be on the flight and crossing the dateline and then ill arrive friday morning. I spend the next 5 days in the Manila MTC while they work on immigrationpapers and then I will be legit in the field with a companion September 27th. 

Thats all I have for this week! I love and miss you all!

mahal,

elder gsack

 Elder Ngalu and Elder labrum and I

Elder mathews and I. Hes our zone leader and hes way cool. We hang all the time

This is Elder Taka and I. Also known as Ben or Gene or Sini. Take your pick but he went to Rosevelt and played red hawks with me both junior and senior year. He left for the field wednesday early morning

Watching the labor day balloons

Tatlo Week (week 3)

Magandang Umaga Po!

The weeks are starting to go by faster and its getting bettter and better here except the fact that the food is still straight aids. Its so bad. Last thursday i went and got a hair cut and its a little shorter then I wanted but its probably for the best. Saturday we thought the BYU game was at night so we all got out of class and went to the top of T4 which is the new building and from the top you can see all of utah and we were gonna try and watch some but we got up there and realized the game was at 1 and had been over for a really long time which sucked but we ended up with a bunch of kids from our zone and just sat around and told stories and it was way fun. Sunday all the DL and ZL got released because we were getting new kids so I am no longer DL and I didnt get a new calling so I am just cruising the next three weeks. During the temple walk that afternoon it was Elder Rigby and Slyvesters last one so they told people to come and see them so I got to meet two of their friends that are going to UVU which was actually quite enjoyable. its nice to meet people who arent wearing a nametag and just want to know where you are from and where you are going. I also ran into President Cusick. I know he sent mallory a picture but he was actually way cool. He talked to me for a while and said mallory was the best missionary so I get that was good. That night we went and watch the old teastament movie. I think I have seen that before but it was still really good. 

Prolly two weeks ago while Elder Rigby was doing service he found 14 squirt guns. They were in this trashbag that was in the trash so he took them out and kept them. So for the last two weeks at random times we would just get soaked and he thought it was the funniest thing. So tuesday night the night before he left we went into his room and took all the guns while he wasnt there and oh boy he got it. Its so enjoyable just knocking on someones door and screaming "Mga misioneryo Taopo!" which means the missionaries are here and when they open the door just soak them. Nothing but good times. 

On the spiritual side last night was probably the best. Bro. Giblette our teacher sat us all down and we went over the First vision and all about it and it was so good. We are working on memorizing the first vision in Tagalog which is super long. (words in tagalog are super long so like in church meeting on sundays the sacrament prayer goes so long its awful. like the single word faith is Pananampalataya.) anyways he had us all resight it one by one and then he told us it was good but he challenged us to read it with more pauses and truly visiualize what Joseph was doing and so we did it with companionships and then after we kinda all bore are testimony. The spirit was so strong it was almost tangible.

On the sad part the top part of our zone left yesterday. so no more rigby and slyvester. Elder Labrum and I are going to have to host auditions for new best friends. But they flew from SLC to LAX and then they had a big layover till one oclock this morning and then they got on a plane to Hong Kong. So they are still flying and will be flying till about 4 or 5 this afternoon. I am really not looking forward to that. On the bright side because they all left we got all their stuff so our room now has 2 basketball hoops which is dope. 

I hope you are all doing well! Thank you for all the letters and packages and prayers! I really appreciate them. 

Love,

Elder gsack

Elder Nelson and I chilling in class

President Cusick and I

Elder Rigby and I

Its a new thing watch out for it. Sandal Monday ;)

Yes we tied his hands behind his back and ductaped his mouth shut

This is Lata. He played on Redhawks with me

Thats sister hayes. She grew up in Hillsboro in the Evergreen ward. She was in the top half of our zone and left yesterday too

Meet our classroom people. Paige is our class girlfriend. her name is paige because we wanted to name her page 33 from the white bible but page 33 isnt a catchy name. Steve and Unis are our mom and dad and then we have snoop the freak dawg which is our pet. You can tell we get really bored in class sometimes