I'M THE RANGA OF THE MANIMALS OF FOUR SQUARE & KEEP THE FAITH!

"Leih Hou!! Mahk Gahtihng!!

So, even though the days go

Language Classes

by really slow, they start to morph together, and the week actually went by pretty fast. The language is coming along, slowly but surely. We are on a double investigator schedule now, so we stay busy, haha. I feel like as soon as we get comfortable with something, they throw a curve ball to get us off balance, but we react and adapt according to the Spirit, so that's what it's all about!!

Ranga of the Manimals - Four Square!

Okay, funny story time... Four square here is like March Madness, the Superbowl and the FIFA World Cup all rolled into one. Haha. It's crazy competitive. A few of the Elders from the Filipino districts in our zone, including our zone leaders, Elder Muir (who is from Australia) wear these awesome animal shirts. You know, like the ones rednecks wear. One has a wolf, one has an eagle and another one is a tiger. Anyway, they all play four square and team up on whoever is in the fourth square. They call themselves the Manimals haha. So, I get in and start picking them off one by one and end up staying in the king square for a good amount of time, and finally when I get them all out, everybody claps and cheers, haha, so they made me an honorary member of the Manimals. On a side note, the Australian Elder calls me Ranga, cuz that's what they call gingers (red heads) in Australia because of the red hair on orangutans haha. So, I'm the Ranga of the Manimals of four square!!! (So, if any of you see an orangutan t-shirt, send it my way!! Pleaseeeee!!!) Haha!

Things have been really good. We had a devotional by the director of Church Missionary advertising. That was awesome. The Church is pushing the mormon.org campaign which is designed to help the extra missionaries hasten the Lord's work. We just passed the 3,000 mark here at the MTC and are projected to top over 5,000 by the summer. They are renting BYU dorms from across the street to accommodate. In conference we were told we have over 65,000 in the field and are projected to creep up into 80,000 by summer and some are saying 100,000 by the end of the year. Not only are there more missionaries,we are learning the language, how to teach the gospel and understand our true purpose faster than any other group before us. Our teacher told us when she found out they were shortening the MTC stay from 12 weeks to 8 weeks, she complained it would be impossible to condense what we needed to learn into the amount of time given. Her last group (Mary Moody's) learned faster, adapted better, were more sensitive to the Spirit and better prepared to enter the field than any other 12 week group. 

If the Lord says we can learn canto in 8 weeks, then we can learn canto in 8 weeks. It He told us to learn it in 3 days, we would. Not from our own strength, but in the strength and faith in the Lord, we can do all things. I witness that, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Well, keep the faith! And prepare to be a missionary before you get here! It's so important. The more you know before you get here, the less of the Lord's time you will waste learning here and out in the field.

I'll send some pics for you!! Hey, so one last thing, I don't get much time on the computers, so tell everybody who sent me a letter through dearelder.com sorry if I did not email them directly. I'll try to write them letters, though. Love you! Bye!"

MTC April 2013