Week 3 flying bye!

Kumusta!

 This week was such a good week! We have been learning so much each day it's crazy! So we finished the basic core for Tagalog and started intermediate core. Basically the only difference is that instead of just memorizing vocab we are doing a bunch of grammar and conjugating. It is pretty tricky stuff as Parker knows haha but it has been fun:) Our teacher is sooooo good!! He jokes around with us a bunch, but he also brings the spirit super strong when he teaches gospel lessons. We found out he has been missing dinner and lunch some of these days because he has been helping us late, and planning lessons for us instead of eating! So Elder Hales and I keep bringing him Creamo's, which are kinda like Oreo's but I think they're better.

 Anyway this week we are getting rid of a ton of missionaries. We have been at full capacity here at the MTC (300) for the last couple days, but this morning they all left and now there is just 25 of us left!! It's weird but super nice haha we will get the next batch on Friday.

 Two nights ago we got to have an "American dinner." It was so freaking nice haha we got pizza, wings, chocolate cake, and soft serve ice cream! It was a good break from the rice, but the food here hasn't really been too bad honestly. After that dinner we all were in a super good mood and we had tons of energy in the district room. Haha Elder Lungren and I made a Tagalog rap and it was so funny! It was just a bunch of the vocab words we were trying to memorize, but we made it rhyme a little haha I'll try to send a vid. We also ate Balute last night!! It wasn't too bad haha I'll send a vid of that too, my companion didn't record it right the first time so I had to eat it again:(

 This week we got some new investigators to teach. It has been going super well with Ernesto and we committed him to baptism yesterday! It's not real yet but it honestly felt so good still! I know it will be harder in the field, but teaching here has been super cool! Our Tagalog has been getting a little bit better. We set super high goals to try and reach. My goal was to learn 105 words each day(2000 words before I leave the MTC). It has been super hard but it makes me study a lot more than I would if I didn't have high goals set!

 I have loved it here! My district is awesome, and the MTC mission president is so funny. He is a mix between Dad and Grandpa in Filipino form haha! Anyway, hope life is good back home!

 -Elder Reber

Still the same 'ol Graden :)

Putting his great art skills to work

Love this pic of the Manila temple

Balut- Not sure why he ate it the second time!

Not sure why this one is sideways- Sorry!

Super ;)

Heyyyyy!

So this week was super good! We have been studying so much everyday and I already feel like I have learned so much! My companion and I started finding all our favorite scriptures and marking them with a sticky note so we can find them fast. It has made my scriptures super fun to read because I want to keep finding powerful verses that we could read in future lessons. I'll send a pic of what I have so far haha they look pretty sick. We have had so many cool devotionals and discussions here it's been so much fun!

One thing I heard today that I liked was "Many books can inform you, but only one book can transform you." I can testify that the Book of Mormon is the only book that can change a person's priorities and desires in life. I have seen it in my life and the spirit has comfirmed that over and over this week.

I have loved the MTC so far even though the language is pretty difficult to learn haha. Our district has made it one of our main goals to stay positive with the Tagalog though so that has been super helpful for all of us.

My district is super fun! We have been bonding super well these last couple days especially. We had free time one night to study, but we were all super tired because we had been doing all of our lessons in Tagolag that day, so Elder Lungren and I decided it would be necessary to lighten the mood a little bit haha. We gave a 30 min "seminar" that we just were standing in the front of our district room reading scriptures that like "And he dwelt in a tent." "And he said, yea." "And he answered, no." "And he said again, yea." We were just cracking tons of jokes, but none of them would make sense unless you were there so I'll just end here before I start sounding like a missionary that lost his sense of humor like Parker;) But yeah it was super funny and it helped our district bond and now we have been making the learning part a lot more fun each day!

So last week after I emailed, we got to go to the temple. It was sooo good. I felt the spirit one of the strongest I have ever felt it while we were sitting in the Celestial room. I know that this is where God wants me to serve, and I know that through Him we can accomplish anything. Knowing that has been such a big comfort to me as I have been studying the language all day every day haha.

We got our first practice investigator this week! My companion and I taught sister Gie! She was just an actor, but she didn't come out of character at all. We had to do all of our lessons in Tagolag, or some Taglish if we needed it at some parts of the lesson. We taught her for 5 lessons and were about to invite her to be baptized tomorrow, but we just found out that we won't be teaching her anymore:( We will get a new investigator on Thursday, so we'll see how that goes! It has been super fun to try and teach though bc we aren't allowed to take any notes in so we have to teach purely by the spirit! It was super hard the first two lessons, but I realized that the spirit is the only way we are going to be able to touch people's lives. I think we get to go out proselyting sometime next week, but that might be after our next pday so we'll see! I probably won't understand much, but it still sounds so fun!

The food here has been alright haha. It's rice every meal and usually some mystery meat on top. Last night we had fish for the meat and it still had its teeth and eyes in it! I was like shoot I'm going to be hungry tonight, but I tried it and ended up loving it so much! I ended up going back for a second little Nemo and he tasted just as good as his first friend!

I have been working hard with the language. I learned over 300 tagalog words, 60 phrases, memorized our missionary purpose in tagalog, and memorized Moroni 10:5 in tagalog too! It has been super hard but I am slowly learning more and more.

Sorry this is pretty long haha I'm using the Alphasmart so it is longer than last weeks:) I know my mom won't mind it though haha. But a special apology goes out to Cannon haha;)

Love you guys!!

Elder Reber

Elder Hales and Elder Reber

Good to hear he hasn't lost his sense of humor yet

First Week :)

Wow what a week! I have had so much going on this week but it has been super fun! I didn't realize how busy we would be out here on the mission. At least here at the MTC, we wake up at 5:55 and have stuff scheduled all the way until 10 at night. The first day we just stayed at a hotel all day haha. It was fun though because they had a sweet deck on the top floor that had a pretty cool view. I had a filipino name Elder Canete as my room mate. It was fun talking to him and asking him all the questions I had about the philippines.

The next day we came to the MTC and did a bunch of orientation stuff. I'm in the Samuel district and we've gotten super close to each other already. My companion is Elder Hales. He's from southern California and is a super good guy! My dad always told me to hope I get a bad companion in the MTC because you can talk to the other missionaries all day. But I got a solid companion instead haha.

So one of my favorite parts of this week was our Face to Face with elder Stephensen! We didn't actually listen to his live interview thing that they broadcasted all over the place, but after they recorded that he came in and talked to us for a devotional. One thing he talked about was how he knows that missionary calls are given to us from God. He has had the opportunity to assign some of them and those are some of the most powerful times he has ever felt the spirit in his life! That was cool to me because I was feeling a little down on myself because Tagolag is so hard to learn haha. I know that the Philippines is where I should be right now and I have already started to see the gift of tongues in my studies a little bit. I'm not going to lie though, I am really impressed that Parker actually learned this crazy language! I guess that can be the one thing he is better than me at... but not for long;) 

Another thing that Elder Stephensen said was that when you get a prompting by the spirit, act on it immediately. If you wait and think about it for even one minute, it might be too late. The Holy Ghost speaks to us at specific times for a reason, so you always need to be trying to listen and be ready for it when it does speak to you.

Anyway I have loved this first full week in the MTC. The spirit is so strong here and I have been learning so much. I have been trying to my best to learn the language but I know that will come over time! I love you all and hope life back home hasn't gotten too boring without me there!;)

-Elder Reber

This picture was sent to us from Parker's buddies in his mission. The office elders and AP's were at the MTC and tracked down Elder Reber #2! 

MTC

Hey mom! Well I made it to the MTC safely! The flight didn't seem as long as I thought it would. I got to sit right next to Elder Holman on both my flights and we just talked for most of the time. He is the one that we met outside security and he's super sick. I don't know who my comp will be yet but I'll let you know on my P-day! I think that will be next wednesday or thursday but I'm not really sure. The Philippines is sooo fun! The driving is insane here haha the motorcycles weave in and out of cars like crazy! I ran into some elders that Parker served with right when I got here so that was super fun! I'll try to send pics on P-day but I think they wanted to send them to Park as well. Well there's so much I want to tell you but I don't have a ton of time today! Hope you guys are doing as good as I have been doing these last two days! I've already gone out of my comfort zone a ton to meet new people on the plane, airport, hotel, and tons of missionaries. I can't wait to get to work this week! Love you guys!

-Elder Reber

Manila MTC

Last family pic for awhile 

Elder Reber and Elder Holman

Off they go!