One Week Left

From Alayna:  This is Frasier's letter from 9/14/17.
The above picture is how he enjoyed the Utah/BYU game in the MTC! :)

One week left before they ship me off to the other side of the world! I am so excited. I love it here at the MTC and I don't really want to leave, nor do I feel ready but at the same time, I am super ready to leave! I'm ready to meet new people and to talk to them (even though I won't be doing much meaningful talking). I'm ready for the people, the culture, the food, the scenery, and everything else. It'll come soon enough. This little bit or council goes for everything: Just keep a good attitude and enjoy what you're doing. Find the reasons for your situations and enjoy them. It goes by fast!

Thursday: Today marked 4 weeks here at the MTC. I have learned so much about the spirit, gospel, Tagalog, and myself. I still have a long ways to go in all those areas, but I am doing really good! Today we went to the Temple and it was awesome to gain more understanding about the Temple just like every time. It really is an amazing place. I spent almost the whole day emailing, so we will have to see how that changes once I get to the Philippines. One thing I realized today is that I need to keep my mind on the purpose at hand and not worry about stuff at home and just trust it will all be OK when I get home. Things will be different and people will be doing different things, but that always happens and you just have to go with the flow. 

We had an online TRC today and that was cool. It honestly wasn't that much different because the whole point of the online TRC is to talk to real Philipinos, but they didn't have enough volunteers so we just talked to some girl that lives in Logan. 

Friday: I forgot to write in my journal today. So I did it later, but this is what I remember went on. In our class, Brother Hill was talking to us a bit about his mission experience. One story in particular that he shared with us was about his "favorite" companion he had. He said that this Elder was just super bubbly and bouncy all the time. He said that they both learned so much from each other. They both were set to leave to go home on the same day, but this Elder's dad was passing away, so he went home 2 weeks early. Brother Hill said that even when he found out about this Elder's dad, and actually took him to the airport, he was still the happiest guy and just talked about how much he had learned from Brother Hill. We had a discussion about this story as a district. Here are some things I learned from that: I want to learn something from every one of my companions, and I want to have a positive impact on them as well. There is a purpose for every person and situation you come in contact with. Whether they be good or bad, there is always a reason. The biggest thing I got was this though: I want to be the person people remember. I don't always feel like I have been that type of person and I want to change that. I want to be remembered for the good and how much people enjoyed being around me and what they learned from me.

Saturday: Today had a lot of good! It was also the hardest day so far though. It was the Utah vs. BYU game today, and even though we were at the MTC you could still tell the game was going on. It seemed like everyone was a BYU fan here, which just reassured my love for the Utes even more. Starting at the begging of the day. We have an early morning class on Saturdays. I wore my crocks to breakfast, and then forgot I had them on. I also was wearing my Utah tie, and then had a pair of Utah glasses in my pocket. Apparently, that combination called for me to have some dress code counseling even though I've never had a problem with it before. Brother Hill let me know everything, and he was very nice about it. He said that it had nothing to do with the fact that he is a BYU fan and goes to BYU, but I'm pretty sure that still had a little to do with it. He asked me to go back to my room and fix the stuff that was wrong, including my tie. That is what set me off. I could care less about having to change a tie, even though especially given the day, and the fact that we are still at the MTC it shouldn't matter. Anyways, after that, I went into a little bit of a dark place for a little while. Every little mission rule that doesn't make sense started coming to my mind and I started to get really angry. I also got really bummed I couldn't be with my family for little things (like football games) or even at least talk to them. That is one thing that I get the reasoning, but it still doesn't make sense to me why we can't call our families while we are on our missions. I went back to my room after class and just sat there and cried for a little bit. After I got over it the rest of the day was good! We went outside and played spike ball, that was good to get some energy out. When we got back to the residency some Philippines Elders in the rooms right next to us wrote a song called "dear john". They wanted to make a music video for it, so we spent the next little while planning and doing the music video. It was so funny as we were doing that. Hopefully, I can get it in an email so I can send it. Maybe it is just missionaries not having anything else to do, but I thought it was funny. That night we went to the new MTC buildings to see if we could see anything from the game. We could see a little part of the stands, and then the screen, except there is a big tree in the way so we couldn't actually see the screen. After a little while, we just went outside. You could hear and smell the game. You could hear cheering and then muffled game announcing. I kept on getting score updates so we knew what was going on. I was decked out in all the Utah gear I had, and evidently it worked because Utah won again. Maybe someday BYU will win again, but definitely not for another 365 days!

Sunday: Today was good, other than I was sick. I guess it is part of the MTC experience to get sick, so it had to come at some point. My nose was running all day. Then during a 2 hour period where we have to just sit and study or do whatever, I blew my nose and it turned into a bloody nose that wouldn't stop for about an hour and a half. So that sucked. I also got a headache afterward, and that wasn't too much fun either. Elder Bennett and I got assigned to teach our district today. It went good. I just need to get used to teaching with someone else instead of by myself like you usually do at church. We taught about the blessings of the spirit. Go check out MMMMMMM. That is obviously not all of them, but it is a good start. (Added by Alayna:  I have no idea what this means!  Anyone?!?)

Later on, Brother and Sister Hicken (Branch Presidency) taught us about being a consecrated missionary. They were basically just using the talk that Elder Bennett and I watched last Sunday. It was really good though because they went into more detail on some things. For the devotional tonight we got to hear from Chad Lewis. It was cool to hear from him because it wasn't just a normal talk. He was talking about football and real life stuff. One major point he made was  "What are you training your heart, might, mind, and body to do?" If you train yourself right you will just automatically do what is good. Also "If you learn to love and serve people, you will forget about everything else." The last thing I want to point out that he said was: "Keep the fire alive in everything you do. Whether in sports, mission work, or marriage. You need to keep the passion and desire." 

For the Sunday film we watched  "Recognizing the Spirit" by Elder Bednar. Once again, just another amazing talk. He shared 3 experiences where the spirit guided him to do something and he didn't know why until after the fact. One was the time he gave Elder Packer 20 marks when he was on his mission, that turned out to save Elder Packer from getting stuck in Communist Berlin. He didn't find out that happened until 20 years after the fact. Another was when Elder Bednar and another Elder in his Stake Council left to go and see their sons play basketball. 6 months later that other man's son died and the basketball game was one of the last times the dad ever got to see his son play. The last one was him not knowing why he gave a talk on a specific topic in General Conference until he heard the talk after his and knew that they were meant to compliment each other. The main point Elder Bednar makes is: "Quit worrying about it! If you are being a good boy and doing what is right, the spirit will guide you whether you recognize it or not." Contrary to popular belief, apostles often times get just the same spiritual promptings we do. One little side note, I felt the spirit super strong at one point during this video. It was when Elder Bednar said the words "I promise in the name of Jesus Christ". I realized how powerful a statement that is.

Monday: It's crazy how fast time flies by! In less than 2 weeks I will be in Cauayan teaching people. Today we did a Book of Mormon study with Brother Hill. It was awesome. It is great to be around a bunch of kids my age all trying to learn the gospel and honestly have their questions answered. Later on in the day we did a "jeepnee" activity. If you don't know what a jeepnee is I will probably have a picture to send next week. They are kind of like city busses. Anyways, they are perfect places for missionaries to talk to people, so we set up chairs in the same way they would be in a jeepnee and then roll played as a class. It was probably the funniest time I've had in class so far. We were kind of cracking jokes and stuff as we were doing this actvity. I think Sister Giles also realilzed how bad our Tagalog was as we were joking around in this activity, because she was almost crying she was laughing so hard. I don't know how to explain it other than it was just funny! What I realized today is I'm pretty good at Tagalog with using what I know. The problem is I don't know very much at all.

Tuesday: Today was our first day of infield orientation (kindof). They used to do infield orientation all in one day, but now they spread it out over a whole week so that it is just for 2 hours a day. This is the first week they have done it this way, so our schedules are kind of messed up. The MTC was supposed to let our zone leader know that we had infield orrientation, but somehow that message didn't get through, so there were about 50 of us missing from infield orientation yesterday. We made it today though! It was really good. It is getting all of us really excited for the field. Here are a few of the things I got from that: "Never lower your expectations. Hold yourself to all the highest expectations so you can be the best missionary possible (most effective)".  Another one was: "Just find a way to fix any problem that comes your way." That is how you become an effective missionary. Last, "A missionary's attitude has a huge effect on their success." All in all it is just crazy that they are getting us ready to actually go out in the field. 

For the devotional tonight we heard from Patrick Kearon who is in the Presiding Bishopric. He was really good. Partially because he has a British accent. He also had a really good talk though. "The best way to be a teacher is to know what you are teaching". That is pretty obvious why that is important. "Do everything with a purpose and ATTACK THE DAY! Your mission is a time to embrace hard and learn how to embrace hard things. Take [these days of] anguish and make them count. It'll all be worth it". "As Mormons we thrive on opposition". "God puts us through the refiners fire with just enough heat to become stronger and more beautiful. He will always put us through just enough that we can handle it." So far these are all different quotes that Brother Kearon said throughout this talk. The refiners fire thing made me think of the video the church made called "The Refiner's Fire".  All those together make for a great little talk, but those are just some of the notes I took. It was really an amazing talk, and something I needed to hear. Another quote I got was "Align your will with Christ's, not the other way around. If you are with God's Will, you can command anything to happen". That is pretty amazing to think that if we are following God's path, we can really do anything.

Wednesday: Today was another good day, as usual. We had service again. I'm getting pretty good at cleaning the bathrooms here at the MTC. 

We had another infield orientation and today it was all about working with members. It was really cool. They basically just showed us how to effectively use members in the conversion process. They did that mostly through a play that they do. Take "The Best 2 Years" or some other corny LDS movie and times it by 10 and that is what this play was. It was really good though and super funny, but still got the point across. Ask any retuned missionary and they will be able to tell you about the infield orientation play. Later on, we did another Book of Mormon read with Brother Hill. My question was how can I get along with my companion and people in general more? I didn't get any crazy big answer like "If you do this, you will get along with everyone" or anything like that, but I did get a few gems: 

Just have faith and things will come in time. 

You have to believe it will happen, or it won't. 

It doesn't always feel like God is with you; sometimes we feel like there is a lack of power, like God isn't there. That is when we need to work the hardest. God doesn't give us blessings unless he can trust us with them.  

How we perform in our struggles is what proves to God that he can trust us. 

For one good thing, there are a lot of bad things that happen, but that is what makes the good so good! 

We also talked to Brother Hill about how to ask meaningful questions to people and how to gain trust with them. Then he let us practice on him because we will actually be teaching him a lesson next week. You could really feel the spirit in that discussion. Even though they were all questions about him, I learned a lot. One thing, it's amazing Brother Hill isn't married yet because he is a stud!

Hopefully everyone is doing well at home! I miss all of you. If anyone who reads this wouldn't mind, send me an email just so I can have your address just in case I get a minute on a Pday to shoot you an email (probably unlikely, but well see). 

(Added by Alayna:  His email address is:  frasier.williamson@myldsmail.net )

Hopefully everyone is enjoying my emails. I wish I could just tell people everything and give you all the feelings I've been having. I try to let you know a little through email, but it might be even less next week because I'll actually be in the Philippines next time I have a P day. Sobrang excited Ako!

Kita Kits!

(Added by Alayna:  Translation is "I'm so excited.  See you!") 

--

Forever and a day, 

Love Elder Williamson!