This week has been amazing. I love how organized it is here at the mtc. This week has been constant language study with a few breaks in between. We do so much in Cebuano, here is a small list of the past week and the general topics that we study for 6-8 hours a day learning vocab, learning grammar, teaching in cebuano, singing, praying, testifying, reading the scriptures to try and figure out what they mean, or just everyday communication.
I have one fantastically funny story this week at the MTC.
Before I begin I must tell you about Elder Kim, He is a missionary that is in the room next to our distracts, you could say our "neighbor." Elder Kim is asian and does not know very good english, yet with his faces and fantastic reactions he might possibly be the funniest Man alive. He is pretty big, and doesn't exercise too much, this is critical knowledge for the story.
Elder Kim when up the stairs to the 2nd or 3rd floor of our building in order to teach his investigator in cebuano. When they get to the room, Elder Kim is completely exhausted from the stairs, it was like he ran a marathon. Pause, The "investigator" is really a teacher that already knows cebuano, and must pretend that they do not know english. Ok, unpause. After they sit down, The investigator asks Elder Kim in cebuano if he is feeling ok, concerned about how completely exhausted he is. Elder Kim says in English "No Cebuano, Not focused... a few gasps for breath....the stairs" This gets the investigator to laugh along with Elder Kim and his companion Elder McItrye for a long time. They finally calm down, trying not to start the laughter up again by letting a laugh slip out. They then realize that there "investigator" can speak english, and causes more laughter, I have no idea how long they were laughing for. Elder Kim then instantly becomes serious and says along the lines (in cebuano) "We will now teach you" The face of Elder Kim going from relaxed to serious made his Companion burst into laughter, this then caused Elder Kim and their investigator to laugh as hard as they did before. They laugh for several minutes while we are sitting in the classroom. When the laughing ends Elder Kim has the great idea of asking the investigator if they will be baptized on his birthday, august 2nd. They laugh again some more and the investigator says yes. Then instantly Elder Kim gets up and leaves after the investigator says yes. This leaves his companion and the investigator in tears still from laughing so hard.
There have also been really cool moments in the MTC with me and my companion, Elder Lewis.
We are managing to teach the gospel to our "investigator" named Jaime. He is patient with us and loves the gospel. We have managed to teach him in this crazy language not only about the church, but have somehow managed to invite the spirit into the room. When the spirit is there, the room becomes calm and peaceful with a bit of... warmth... I'm not sure if there is any moment when I realize the spirit is present. When it comes, suddenly words are said that we did not plan to say, and the lesson changes slightly. Its a miracle to me because I am sure if during our practice teaching the lesson, if we changed just a little bit, we would not know what was next in our lesson. This changes when we are in teaching, we ask a question that wasn't in our plan, or bear testimony in the middle instead of the end. Then we still manage to know what to do next, its really pretty cool.
The spirit of our lesson about the Book of Mormon has been the strongest, it has reaffirmed to me the truth of the Book of Mormon. It was so strong, I wish everyone could feel that witness as strong as me, Elder Lewis, and Jaime did that day. It was an amazing experience.
Extra thanks to the Chadwicks for the package of food, the tie pin, and some stickers. Everyone Here thanks you for the food especially.
Thank you to those that send me letters, I love getting them to read at night before I go to bed, they also really help with giving me time to reply to emails on P-day. I get why everyone loves missionary letters so much, they make me feel loved and help me to be able to write back to people on P-day. It really makes the world of a difference.
Thanks everyone,
Elder Remer
I really would like to here from anyone who has the time to write to me.
again my address is
Elder Ryan David Remer
SEP04 PHI-CEBE
2007 N 900 E Unit 51
Provo UT 84602
for slow mail
or
for DearElder.com
my ID is 888-44-1017
Mission is Philippines Cebu East
Leaving September 04
