Labing-siyam pang araw sa MTC (19 days left in the MTC)

Hey guys!

"19 days left in the MTC"

Thanks again for all the love you sent me this week! I love opening up my email and seeing 20 emails. It takes a while to respond to them but keep them coming :)

By the way, if you see grammar mistakes or misspelling at any time during my emails during these next two years its not my fault, Tagalog is making me do it haha. The sentence structure for Tagalog compared to English is completely different. You should see my journal after speaking Tagalog all day.. So many mistakes! Haha

So to start off we receive our flight plans to the Philippines this Friday! I don't want to guess what it's going to be like because I might be completely wrong. Just expect a very long and exhausting day of flying and layovers before we land in Manila! One thing I know for sure is that when we land in Manila we stay in the Manila MTC for 5 days just to get over jet-lag. 

I get released as District Leader this week but I'm called to be the Zone Leader for the remainder of the MTC. Some people don't like being leaders because it increases their work load, which is true, but I love it. You're able to develop such a stronger bond and love for the Elders and Sisters in your zone/district...I love it!. And the zone/district leader meetings we have every Sunday and Tuesday are amazing. You see the Christlike attributes you need to work on in order to become the missionary the Lord needs and expects you to become. 

Everything else in the MTC is going great though! The 2 districts ahead of us leave on Thursday which means were the next districts to leave! Each day in here seems like it takes forever but each week flies by. It's crazy to think we've almost been here for a month already.

We learned about 6 new verb conjugations this week. Some are harder than the others but overall they're pretty fun to learn. There's no way I could have learned all of these conjugations without the gift of tongues! Such a real and powerful git!

Anyways. Some amazing experiences happened through out the week.

So on Monday we taught Marlyn (an investigator my teacher imitates). That lesson was definitely a humbling experience. It did not go well at all. We didn't prepare the way we needed to in order to address her needs and concerns and was struggling to try to get the message across in Tagalog. 

After that lesson I just remember thinking I'm not going to be unprepared for another lesson again.

Then Tuesday comes around and  we had member TRC. Member TRC is just a home teaching program with members from around the Ogden/Provo area who volunteer to come to the MTC so missionaries can teach them. Most are returned missionaries from the Philippines but some are native Filipinos. Anyways, taking the lesson that I learned from the night before I wanted to prepare as best as possible for the two lessons we had to teach. The topic was "Revelation through prayer" or "Paghahayag sa pamamagitan ng panalangin" ;). I was reading out of the book of Mosiah when I realized that the passages I was reading wouldn't help the lessons we were about to teach. I prayed for guidance as to what scriptures we should share to whoever we would teach. So I grabbed in the middle of the scriptures and I turned straight to 2 Nephi 32:8. I read the scripture, prayed about it, and felt that it was good enough to share. I still felt I needed one more though so I prayed to be guided to receive one more scripture. This time I had to flip through the scriptures and I came across Alma 5:45-46. I read it, prayed about it and felt that scripture was the correct one to share.

Now I feel confident that the scriptures and the lessons Elder Briskin and I prepared would go well with the lessons we were teaching. Before we started teaching I told Elder Briskin to share the scripture in 2 Nephi when he feels prompted to do so. So we go into the lesson and we're teaching a native Filipino lady who moved from the Philippines to Ogden about two years ago. We're into the lesson and Elder Briskin felt prompted to share the scripture so he did that. Then I started talking and asking questions after and I shared the scripture in Alma 5. The next thing that happened was one of the most amazing experiences that I have ever experienced. It developed my testimony about the power of the spirit and the gift of tongues, and also revelation through personal study. So she gets done reading and I close my eyes to try and think what to say next in Tagalog. The next thing I know I'm asking a question in Tagalog that I didn't even know I knew how to say. After I'm done I look up and I just see that sweet old lady have tears in her eyes. Then she talks for about 5 minutes and I have no idea what she's saying but I can just feel the power from her words. By the time she's done talking shes in full on tears. 

She says the prayer in English so we can understand what she was saying and she said stuff about how this lesson changed her life and how thankful she is for the missionaries. The entire time I'm just as confused as Elder Briskin because I had no idea what I even said that would make her feel that way. After the lesson we walk out of the class and I'm trying to recall what I asked her so I asked Elder Briskin and he had no idea what I asked.

That experience developed my testimony so much about the power of this calling as a full-time missionary! It made me realize how important it is to prepare for lessons as best as possible and to try to receive personal revelation through prayer and scripture study. Although I had no idea I was going to teach this lady, I received revelation that those scriptures that we prepared were meant to teach her. And because of our preparation and our diligence in personal study we were able to change a life of someone before we even entered into the mission field. How amazing is that? :) 

I love being a missionary, I'm so grateful to be able to do this for two years. It's one of the greatest works you can do here on earth, to be able to help families be together for all eternity :)

I love you all so much!

Mahal ko kayo!

Elder Oslund

In Front of the Provo Temple

Me and Elder Tokanong. He's from a tiny island called Kitypas I think. He's one of the coolest person you will meet. He has to learn English before he learns Tagalog just because he has to understand what the teachers are teaching. He'll leave with us to the Philippines on November 13th.