DON'T SING IN FRONT OF A UKRANIAN (Week 5, Philippines MTC)

HEY EVERYONE!

The week started off good! elder brown and i bought a full on cake just for ourselves and soon realized it was way too much to eat so we let others join in but it was awesome hahaha! so good!

here are some highlights!

So i cant remember what week this happened but one of our elders had a bug bite on his thigh at the start of the mtc. and later he found one next to it but this time it had a whitehead! so nasty! i went into the district room and told him to go to the nurse and soon enough almost everyone in the senior ltm district started doing it hahaha he was probably so annoyed! it was hilarious! its the little things that help you get through the mtc.

to reference to my title that's a story for later...

elder lowery my cowboy hes in the pic with me in the barbershop, him and i have become close and we talk to each other and hang out a lot. the guy is so funny, i love his country accent.

time has flown by like crazy its been insane! all of us are getting hyped to get out into the field!

sometimes during grammar lessons we go to the temple and i met a missionary in the mtc's family there and we were talking with them my companion and i, and we had a good conversation and i brought back a package for him, it was nice.

elder holland gave a devotional a while back and we listened to it on Sunday and it got some of us hyped and just made us want to dedicate our full 24 months to the lord. we have been slacking but now i know at least i'm wanting to pick things up a little. it was great devotional.

i have the baptismal invitation in tagalog memorized and i almost have the first vision memorized! i'm so pumped! the first vision is hard to remember but i can put in more practice. tagalog is hard but i feel like i'm getting better and my companion and i had a really great lesson we are ready to invite our "investigator" to get baptized! we talked about how we are baptized and i mentioned what it means to me and it was awesome the spirit was so strong in the lesson.

what was unexpected was one of my teachers was impressed with our speaking in tagalog and she was asking us questions about us and it made me feel good cuz i don't think i'm that good but it was nice that feels i am i guess a fast learner and doing good at it.

so scary thing at first! i found this weird knot like feeling thing in me and it scared me! there was no redness so i went to go get that checked out the other day. turns out its a sebacious cyst...i could've had it for years but i probably just noticed. its not very big so i just have to make sure that it doesn't grow otherwise its fine hahaha probably too much information but hahaha oh well.

The mission is great i have had to learn a lot and i'm not perfect but i'm trying. i can try a little harder and i will because i really want to become more like Christ. I'm going proselyting tomorrow and i'm so excited to teach people even though i don't know tagalog that well!

Love you all!

Elder Wright

forgot to send the pics! elder brown and i with the cake. elder lowery and i in the barbershop. my new book of mormon and my mission ring

Proselyting (Week 4, Manila Philippines MTC, Elder Lutz)

Hey whats up peeps! I hope i have enough time to get a good email in!

on wednesday last week i got to go to the temple! It was awesome being able to go and feel the spirit! i got to go again today and i absolutely loved it! the whole day was sad with all of the leaders gone and people leaving! but its okay cuz on thursday we finally went out of the mtc!!!

Thursday was our day to see missionary work in reality to the fullest degree! and let me tell you...IT WAS THE BEST! i love proselyting! i dont even know tagalog that well and i loved every secodn. i had an awesome filipino kasama who was still in training taking me around. he was from canada and was just the nicest guy. his kasama had taken two appts i think it was when they went out, so we had one possible appt. and so we were banking on that one and he decided to show me around and we will knock doors and oym (open your mouth).

We got on a jeepini and it was so small with room! they just pile people in this tiny car and i tried talking with people in the car and they talk so fast and quiet! it was crazy! i could barely understand but i still tried to talk to people the best i could!

we went over to the squatters area where houses are cramped everywhere and to get to house to house we have to cram through tiny areas and i had to duck at points! we went knocking on doors and got rejected or people werent there, but we also did get another appt and new investigator that couldnt meet right then and there so that was good! but as we were going around we were talking to little kids and they are so cute and they just absolutely love missionaries! i loved talking to them but i could barely say anyhting in tagalog but i tried and its just funny how much better they are at tagalog than me but i guess its not cux they are filipino but  my vocabulary just doesnt compare!

As we were knocking we almost went past this house but my tmeporary kasama had a prompting to go and knock on the door and we did and it was awesome we got investigators! they were so receptive to the lesson and to what we taught and we gave them a book of mormon... so hoepfully the read it up!

The lesson started off with getting to know them a bit and then i started us off. i ddint say too much but i tried to teach about how god is our loving heavely father, the gospel blessses families and then  i lead the lesson into prophets where my kasama took over and gave a fantastic lesson. they way he would communicate with the people was awesome! he really does have so much love! at the end of the lesson i bore my testimony and it was difficult but i tried my best to share our message with them.

the spirit was strong in there and it was an awesome experience! i was so sad to have to leave! i DID NOT want to have toback to the mtc! i wanted to just teach everyone even though there wasnt much i could say! but just goes to show that doing the lords work truly brings happiness!

I love you all so much! i cannot wait to hear from all of you! missionary work is awesome!

sorry no picss!

Balut does not taste like a hard-boiled egg (Week 3, Manila, Philippines MTC, Elder Lutz)

HEY PEOPLE!

i hope you all are doing well! i know things are going good over here!

last p-day i was able to get a cool mission ring for 8 bucks so im so pumped to finally get it today! so this week had its ups and its downs and its almost going down but really just coming out of my mouth adn making me feel sick...you will knoiw what i mean.

so on i think on wednesday or thursday or something some missionaries in my district and in the other one decided to do some pretty dumb unmissionary things. so me and the other district leader had tpo set up a meeting with everyone and talk to them about the dnagers of what they did and how nogt only could they face consewuences but also their companion even if they didnt do anything. so we talked with them and talked about how we are all needing to adjust but we all have to work har on adjusting so we told them that and told them how much we loved them and the problems almost all went away so we will see what happens.

One of my investigators just looks t our appointmesnts as just talking so its been rough trying to teach hima nd find out the truth for himself but we will try to figure things out hopefully it will get worked out!

I had the chance to trade some ties with some filipinos i love! that was awesome they gaeve me some cool ties and they didnt even pick my favorite ones so that was awesome! i love being around the filipinos because i just mess with them and will randomely hug and hold elders and they just go with it.

Crazy thing happened provo batch came and didnt even see this coming my bruddy Raymond Fowler who lived in my dad's old ward, came to the mtc! i havent seen him since before my dad passed away. it was great being able to reconnect. he is a cool dude! he brought his ukulele so that was fun!

I LOVE SUNDAYS. sacrament meetings, district meeting and priesthood meeting and movies. in the meetings the spirit is alwasy so strong! i love leading district meetings because again we talked about our goals and our goals for christ-like attributes and tralking about the impacts the thigns make on our lives and experiences we have had applying these goals to better ourtselves is awesome! definitely is important to focus on trying to become like christ alwayas and as a missionary.

for the movie part! man its so fun being able to watch church movies. in some the acting is so bad its hilarious, but they are still good. one of the guys in the movies looked like the mixture of ryan gosling and nicholas cage and it was so funny finding that out. when we see a kiss scene we liked to get hyped its so funny hahaha we laugh a lot.

So im no longer district leader but me and my companion are the language training missionary zone leaders so that was exciting to hear! im excited to be able to continue to serve in a leadership calling.

alright lets get sad and then we will get some laughs going.

so the senior language training missionaries(LTMs) are leaving and so are my favorite indian sisters and the filipinos. its sad!!! i dont want them to go! its not easy having to say goodbye but it will be okay cuz we have the work to keep us busy!

alright now BALUT...so for anyone who has no idea what balut is...look it up. but im also gonna describe it. its a dug egg wiht an embryo inside and the yoke that gets stuck in the ground and ferments about 18 days or so and they boil it and eat it. i have a video of me trying it. but anyway its not even the thought of ewating a baby duck thats gross...its the fact that it tastes like egg fart that really makes hair on the back of your neck whip and do the nay-nay.

you will see my attempts of it and man i couldnt do it cuz i was just gaggign from everytime i tried.

back to a different subject hahaha. anyway so our district goal was to take someones tray back during meal times. and let me tell you, that was probably some of the most fun i had in the mtc jsut being able to clean peoples mess off their plates and take back their plates and tray. i mean its a small act of service...but it gets addicting fast! i help out someone and then i just have to go to find someone else who is done eating. being able to do that small act of service definitely made me happy. even with small acts of service i think you can make a difference. and i just loved being able to help people out and hopefully brighten their day.

It really small things that can help make us happy. serving truly is wonderful and invite everyone reading to find a way even if its something small, to serve someone. i know you will be happy when you do it.

I love you all SO much and being here is great! i miss you guys but the mission is also very great and im glad to be here! take care! cant wait to hear from you!

Fist Bumps Galore (Week 2, Manila, Philippines MTC, Elder Lutz)

HEY PEEPS!

MAN! i have never given so many fist bumps in my whole life! every one loves to give fist bumps its too the point where the mtc sister adults will get mad cuz filipinos will try to give you knuckles during the mtc devotional as you sit down until they are told not to. they are funny people i love messing arounf with them cux they are always smiling.

Any way thursday! One of the tongan missinoaries in my district fell and rolled his ankle playing volleyball! it was whack and with how big he is you know it was a hard fall! volleyball is so fun to play during the physical exercise time. All of us always look forward to it cuz the days sometimes in the mtc get long! our investigator we taught, we asked her if she wanted to get baptized and she said yes but in time and then all of the sudden we are doing the our first investigator interview and BAM! the lady that we were teaching ends up being our second teacher! we were so shocked and it was so weird! she was a great actor! what they do is the portray people close to them and pretend they are investigators we are teaching. So as soon as we were done teaching her we got "new investigators". surprisingly enough its not weird teaching our teachers cuz when we are in there we get so into. but now we cant really speak taglish (a mixture of english and tagalog) we have to go just straight tagalog. hahaha it takes patience cuz we only gospel words so sometimes its hard to understand what they are responding and communicating and feeling but i do my best to just listen and go for it and speak what i know whether its wrong or right. For the most part  think they understand me pretty well. [] we will get there.

EVERYDAY there is so much food! im stuffed! i am gonna get fat. i need to start trying to work everything off cuz the mtc for 6 weeks is going to kill me. the days felt so long in the beginning but now it is flying by! 

i was so happy when it was sunday because let me tell you how nice it is to finally have a day thats different in the mtc. i love being district leader. i facilitated a district meeting and we talked so long abotu christ like attributes. we are trying to focus more on serving others and doing little things and its awesome. truly when you serve you are able to forget about things and feel so much love peace and happiness.

the lesson i facilitated on sunday about the book of mormon went fantastic. the spirit was strong and we really just discussed about how important the book of mormon is in our life. it makes me wish i had more time to kick back and read it because just being here i have learned a lot from reading the book of mormon. its helped guide me on how i need to change for the better and be more christ like because there are so many small things we can to be christ like that will help us live a happier life. I definitely feel it when i see all of the philipiinos and just hug them and joke around with them.

being aroung [missionaries] is great except for when i cant tell if all the water on the ground is pee or if its water from the sink when they splash evverywhere and wash their face...i really am shooting for water becuase i walk on that floor. [] ANOTHER gross thing about the bathroom was that i found little red worms in the toilet just swimming around like theres not tommorrow. so gross but its okay they are just little sewage worms and they are normal. still pretty freaky tho.

so this whole time ive been in the mtc i thought that cuz we were in the philippines that we only get cold water...NOPE. NOT TRUE PEOPLE. turns out ive been eating the canned beans and drinking powdered lemonade (reference to talk given by uchtdorf living under our priveleges). i have been suffering with not hot water. i mean its not too bad but hey i want hot water as much as i can before i leave out to the field. But its not our fault we are just i think the only room who's hot water pressure doesnt work. so hopefully that will get worked out soon.

One last thing before i go...who won the Bachelorette???? someone tell me

Anyway the mtc is good. ive learned that there is more i could be doing to improve and its been a great experience. I want to make my father in heaven proud and i hope i will be able to as i work more diligently and try to come closer to him.

Alam ko po na ang totoong ebanghelyo ni jesucristo. alam ko po na ang pagmahal ng diyos.

couldve messed up a little but i know this gosepl is true and i know that god is loving. Sa pangalan ni jesucristo, amen (in the name of jesus christ, amen).

I love and miss you all, may we all remember to share our love with everyone and let them know that God and Christ love them.

First Week Philippines MTC (Week 1, Elder Lutz)

HEY EVERYONE! I am having such a fun time in the Philippines. its absolutely beautiful, the city is like LA meets the jungle.

Immediately i started the missionary work cuz that's what its all about. on my flight to san francisco i met this guy from Romania...i cant remember his name  i wrote it down somewhere but anyway we started talking about religion and then i talked about how im serving a mission and i started sharing some of our beliefs and i gave a full on lesson about the Plan of Salvation and our purpose being on earth. It was awesome, he was so intrigued and then before we had to go i offered him a BOM so he can learn for himself the gospel and be able to answer any questions or curiosities he may have but he declined saying he liked our conversation but doesn't really enjoy reading. I wasn't discouraged tho cuz it was still a sweet experience.

Then I went to the airport and started talking to a filipina and also some polynesian kids and then i found Elder Lutz. My knight in shining armor. It was good being with another missionary. We didn't talk too much but it was still cool. We then flew to Hong Kong. the flight wasnt even that bad! when we arrived in Honk Kong the airport was HUGE. and we were so happy to finallly be out of america. It was my first time! we were there looking out at the mountains and water and were just fascinated. Elder Lutz and i were getting closer it was awesome! there we met with all of the other missionaries, White, Olpin (the BFG), Lowery (my cowboy), Eccles (the filthy dog), Munk, Brown, villanueva (thinks hes a filipino), And sister Tillman.

When we get off the plane to the philippines we took one good breath and BAM we knew we would have to grow lungs on our mission hahaha joke-lang (just kidding in the philippines). but it was humid and i dont mind it acrtually. after al the flying i forgot what my bags looked and i was so scared and in the airport i also had another failed attempt of offering the BOM to someone. ia sked if they jhad ever seen one and they said they had never seen one so i asked if they wanted to see what it looks like and so i pulled it out but then never got a chance to offer it to them :( but its cool. it was like still day one and i was just happy to make the effort to invite others to come unto christ through missionary work.

We got out of the airport and Jun took us to the hotel, a HERTZ worker. they drive like crazy in the philippines. its a controlled chaos that scared Lowery who beat us in rock paper scissors for shotgun. Lowery by the way is a straight hick. its awesome we all love and the philippones think hes hilarious. When we got to the hotel we were like the first people there. we went out outside not knowing if it was allowed and walked close to the hotel cuz we had to check the place out. it was amazing we got sweet photos! We stayed at that place and there were filipino missionaries everywhere. I became homies with a new zealander and filipino. Elder Watene and Elder Maandig.

in the mtc we arrived and i had to get a haircut. they are crazy strict. everyone gets the same haircut and they are all asian haircuts hahaha two leaders loved my hair but they said it had to be shorter so that was fun. the days have felt long! there were so many meetings it was crazy! and by that day tagalog was already starting. the next day we had to teach in tagalog...like what the bulong keso! (cheese ball!) Everyone was so nervous to teach. we were the last group to teach the investigator and when we got in there we just spent time getting to know her and then found out stuff that i was able to relate with her on and then we taught her a lesson i think different from what we planned and it was awesome the spirit was there and we spoke Taglish. English and tagalog. She loved our message about how heavenly father loves us and about how the gospel of jesus christ blesses families and how families are eternal cuz she lost her mom. it was good for me to relate with her about losing my dad and that helped us connect withe her. Our lesson went over time. it was sweet, we were so pumped! everyone was really nervous and before i walked in there i stopped elder lutz and was like if we want this to be good and if we want to convey our message so she can understand (xuz we didnt speak tagalog) then we cant joke around and we have to be serious cuz we need the spirit to be in tjher because the spirit will teach her and the spirit will allow our message to be conveyed. So despite all my worries and feelings of inadequacy i offered a powerful prayer. probably one of my most powerful prayers, with elder lutz and that changed eveything and the lesson went awesome cuz of the spirit. truly a lesson that we need to rely on God in our life and on the spirit because if we do so we will be blessed. 

I forgot to mention! on day one i was called as the District leader. so that was cool. I also have to give a lesson and run a district meeting this next sunday so hopefully it goes well. 

funny thing! the indians in the mtc LOVE ME and I LOVE THEM. they gave me rupees and i gave them american money we always talk. the sisters are so kind and the Elders are just so respectful. I love being everyone's friend here. I also love messing with all of the filipinos and they love it. they are the funniest. everyone gives fists bumps here its so funny. Sister [] got mad cuz during the mtc devotional everyone was fist bumping after going to sit down after shaking the area 70 hand, it was hilarious.

The days after have been rough i have had problems with [a certain elder who] has been kinda rude to me and i have been having a hard time loving him and so was my companion. with all of my negative feelings i started reading later the bom before i went to bed and coincidence...i think not... i run into 3 Nephi 11 i think and it was talking about how the spirit of contention is of the devil and i just felt so bad for having bad feelings towards him. i haven't said anything really to him but still having those feelings and reading that chapter and then read chapter 12 when Christ visits america. man i felt bad and that i just need to be more Christ-like and i need to stop having these feelings that are just hateful and negative so it was a huge wake up call. I want to be more like Christ and i know that i just cant have those feelings so now i know no matter what i jus t got to try and love people even if they don't necessarily love me back cuz i didn't have the power to change how they feel about me but i have the power to change how i feel.  So even though i gotta a lot of love i know i need to expand it if i want to be the man the lord expects me to be and i want to be that man. Also i had  strong impressions that I just got work SO hard. Harder than i've ever worked before. after they told us the story about how Gordon B Hinckley took the pledge to lose himself in the work i felt so impressed that i need to make the same pledge to stop feeling so insecure about the language, to stop thinking of myself and my needs, and maybe things that are bothering and to get to work. cuz that's what matters most. this work right here and that's why i'm here. i have just had so many feelings that i just need to really work and to focus on what matters most. I know by doing so i will be blessed cuz it was so strongly testified to me. and i'm excited! I already love the people and i love being able to share this gospel and invite others to come unto Christ. I have so much work ahead of me and that's the good thing. i just got to forget about myself and keep positive always. i cant be here to complain and to wish things were different i gotta be here to work so i can be shaped and so i can be an instrument in the lords hands to help others be shaped into conversion. I know the Lord has great things in store for me. 

I love you all so much, all of you who receive this letter i love you so much and i miss you guys so much. I hope you guys know that.

Here are photos: the second photo is called the path of righteousness is lit: