Week 7: I'm in Heaven!

Right off the bat I've gotta apologize about the sporadic emails. I didn't know my P-day was going to be today until yesterday, and I don't think I'm going to have another one until the Monday after next, but I've been wrong many times before, and I expect to be wrong many more times.

So many things have happened this week and I don't know where to start, but I'm just gonna go for it.

First of all, the Philippines is so beautiful! I love it here. We got to go through the temple last week after I emailed, and it's a really small temple, but it's so beautiful. I don't know if it's sacrilegious to say, but sa Pilipinas, in the temple they wear these really cool silk white shirts without ties. Today, my companion and I went to reserve a temple session for our district, but when we got there, there was a massive line of Filipino people waiting to get into the temple. It was a 45 minute wait for us to get to the front desk to ask about reservations, when they informed us it was a Filipino holiday, and they couldn't make any reservations for missionaries.

While we were waiting in line, I saw several vans pull up to the curb and people pour out of them in their sunday best. There were men, women, children, and elderly people crammed into these vans that probably drove hours to they could get to the Lord's house on their precious day off. I saw a man walk right by us with a fat stack of family names, and just the idea of this man, and his ancestors waiting so long for him to get them to the temple brought tears of joy to my eyes. These people are so humble, and I can learn so much from their zeal on coming to the house of the Lord. I'm honestly glad my district isn't going to get the opportunity to go through the temple today, even though it's probably the last time in two years that I'll have the chance to go, if it means that that many more of these blessed people can remember their ancestors, or preform their own saving ordinances, in such a sacred way.

In my own personal study, I'm in Alma chapter 32, where Alma is talking to those people who have been cast out of their synagogues by those with more than them. Alma says:

"16. Therefore, Blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humbled; or rather, in other words, blessed is he that believeth in the word of God, and is baptized without stubbornness of heart, yea, without being brought to know the word, or even compelled to know, before they will believe."

These people may be in humble circumstances, but they are 100% humble of their own accord as well. They are hard working, charitable, and above all some of the most christlike people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Love,
Elder Menzie

Wheel of TAGALOG:
Siyok: the frightened cry of a chicken
(pronounced like: Shoke)

Manila Temple

My District at the Manila Temple

Me, Elder Heslop, Elder Debry and Elder Heminway

The Cauayan Crew at the Temple

Week 6: Swimming Through the Air

Hey, So I'm in the Philippines now. We left the Provo MTC at 1:00 PM on Monday the 13th. We landed in Manila at 6:00 AM on Wednesday the 16th. I am exceedingly jet-lagged, so I apologize if this email goes off the rails a little bit.

Flight info from LAX to Manila

They gave us these comfy tube socks for the 14 hour plane flight to Manila, and I guess they made it so my ankles didn't swell up, because everyone else had swollen ankles, but I just had comfy blue socks on.

At the Manila Airport

When we got out of the Airport in Manila (none of my bags got lost) we got herded onto a bus where the MTC president, President Carlos, started listing off the ways that the Philippines MTC is better than the one in Provo. The list is extensive. It is sooooo beautiful here. It's set up like a rectangle of buildings, and in the middle there's this courtyard that is sobrang magandang. Also the food is MUCH better here. We had liver for dinner yesterday! Apparently they're going to serve us Balut before we leave, which is basically a fertilized hard boiled egg. I'm looking forward to that.


Also, the city of Manila is CRAZY. We were driving through it and it looked like the city from Blade Runner, except more humid, and slightly cleaner air. The drivers here are CRAZY. There are all these Jeepnees driving around, which are basically little school bus looking things that just drive around and people get on. They've got this fast food restaurant here called Jollibee that serves spaghetti and meatballs, burgers, hot dogs, and fried chicken, among other things. It's about as common as McDonalds in America. There were stray dogs everywhere. There was this little kid just taking a nap on top of this shelf on the side of the road. Manila is crazy.

When I was in LAX, waiting to call my parents on the payphone, I decided to get Panda Express as my last American meal. I opened up the fortune cookie and it said:

"You are exactly where you're supposed to be."

I started laughing, and put it into my wallet for safe keeping. I went to call my parents on the payphone and all I got was voicemail. I figured my dad might be in Germany, so I used the international instructions, and still nothing. I tried the domestic instructions again and for the last time, I got nothing. I don't know whether it was the exhaustion, the craziness of what happened earlier when we first got to LAX (long story short, we lost Elder Finau, a 6'4" 350 lbs Tongan), or the fact that I just really wanted to talk to my mom, but I kinda just lost it. I went into the bathroom so the other missionaries waiting wouldn't see, but there was a janitor cleaning in there, so I walked back out and just stood alone for a little bit. I took out my wallet, and just looked at my fortune, and just started to wonder for a hot minute. We went back to our gate, and I just kinda sat alone for a while. I went to go read the Book of Mormon, looking for some sort of comfort. I was reading in Alma chapter 5, where Alma the Younger is chastising the people of Zarahemla. what really stuck out to me was in verse 43, where Alma says:

"... for behold, I have spoken unto you plainly that ye cannot err,"

God had already given me the comfort I was looking for.

It was so plain that I couldn't miss it if I tried. 

"You are exactly where you're supposed to be."

I really wanted to talk to my family, and I did get to, thanks to a kind elder and the burner phone his parents sent him, but I know that even if I didn't get to talk to my parents for two years, I am exactly where I'm supposed to be.

Love,
Elder Menzie

JOLLIBEE!

Jeepnees in Manila

All of the missionaries currently at the Manila MTC.
I'm approximately 4th row from the back and 4th from left side.