Week 4

I want to start off first by saying that I love my family! They are the best people I know. 

Second off this is my apology again for the many typos that will most likely be in this email, computer apps was not my nest class in highschool! Today marks 6 days until the flight to The Philippines! I am so so excited. I simply cant wait any longer! This last week has been a busy one but I am amazed at how much my companion and I were able to accomplish in that time! 

Last Friday all of the Kiribati Missionaries in our zone had the opportunity to go to Temple Square in Salt Lake to go inside the visitors center, conference center, take a tour around the Temple and much more! I was lucky because they let their companions go with them! Getting out of the MTC and going to Temple Square was amazing! All of the missionaries who had not been there before were astonished by all of the different buildings and statues, pictures, etc.! They were all excited to ride the front runner to SL and back too, it was cool to see their eyes so big for so long! It was funny, they tired themselves out pretty quick becuase on the train ride back, they were all sound asleep hahah.

Saturday marked One month as a missionary! I should have gotten myself some flowers and chocolates but i didnt want to be that sappy for just one month! Maybe in 4 or 5 ill do something special.. Speaking of sarcasm, i learned on saturday that a lot of Filipino people dont understand sarcasm.. So im not sure how I feel about that!! Hopefully i only talk to the people who do understand sarcasm or this might be a struggle. hahah the langauge is coming along really well. We all in the zone are trying to not speak any english throughout the day which is sometimes hard but you can tell a difference in how much you take in when you use it every day! 

Sunday yet again was a good one! Church was awesome, I love the Temple walks we take because everyone is just in the best moods possible and its impossible to not be in a good mood! 

At the Sunday night devotional, Elder Palacio and Sister Calaway gave the prayers in front of everyone, including Elder Allen from the Quorum of the Seventy (He's a big deal it was cool) after the devotional was over, Elder Palacio and I, and Sister Calaway and Fa' were talking to him and when Elder Palacio went to say "you gave an awesome t-" He opened the door and left! All 4 of us were busting up laughing and Elder Palacio played it off cool, we are still giving him crap for it though haha.

Monday there wasnt too crazy of stuff going on, Mostly just learning more Tagalog and trying to decipher what the teachers are saying to us! 

Tuesday was super fun. In the mornings we do a service project ( which means no class! ) then we have a study time where Elder Mereki and I work on Tagalog sentence structures and all of that good jazz, we only have one class during the day and at night there is a Devotional! At the devotional, Sister Fa' and I were the ones asked to give the prayers, and the speaker was Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles! (An even bigger deal!! so it was cooler!) haha but in all serious it was so amazing to hear from him in person, 20 feet away. Im so happy i got to hear from him and M. Russell Ballard here at the MTC! I really do love the MTC its a great place to learn and grow. 

On Wednesday we got the chance to be a host for new missionaries! Show them around the MTC, get them all of the folders that they need and show them where their classes are. Its super fun to talk to a new missionary and take the pictures of them with their families and what not! 

Thursday (today) has been really good! Elder Mereki and I are super close with eachother so we are on the same page about a lot of very important things for example: At breakfast he grabs two spoons from one side of the breakfast area and i grab the yogurt and cereals that we like, then we both go to the fridge to get milks and then chocolate donuts right next to the refrigerator. BOOM teamwork makes the dream work! Like i said before probably 100 times, the MTC is great. You make the best of it and i am so blessed to be with my companion and my zone. I am also beyond blessed to have the family that i have! Alyssa and Dallin congrats on the girls! The Pitt family really needed more girls and you provided! :) I love my family and love all of you guys too! Have great weeks and the next time ill email you all, ILL BE IN THE PHILIPPINES!  

Here are some pictures! 

Love, Elder Pitt 

Week 3 - will try to post pics.

Happy to have Elder Kainga back!!
Everyone calls me Brad Pitt and we call him my child hahahha (just waitin for angelina in 2 years)
He wanted to be taller than everyone since he is the shortest!!

On Thu, Apr 14, 2016 at 3:55 PM, Cole Pitt <cole.pitt@myldsmail.net<mailto:cole.pitt@myldsmail.net>> wrote:
Hello everyone! This past week has been so amazing! I will try and keep it short so that you dont fall asleep while reading this email but no promises!
Friday started off with getting Elder Mereki to the doctors for his two teeth extraction! He was a champion for never having surgery before! It was so funny, the doctor and i were just having a casual conversation while he administered "the good stuff" to Elder Mereki, and not even 1/4 of the medicine was in his body and Elder Mereki was out hahaha. With permission from him he is letting me send the pictures I took of him post-op! A big thank you to Alyssa and Dallin for the package you brought! After we got back from the oral surgeons, (the story of getting him into the large van and getting out is too long but ill let you guys imagine an Elder whos never been under sedation before wake up and try to be coordinated enough to do that hahah) Elder Mereki went into the nurses office to rest for the next couple hours! Every 40 minutes we were told to switch out his gauze, but all of the nurses were busy with other missionaries so.... They told me to do it! I was like "oh.. okay.. i guess if i have to.. sure.." but in my head I was like "WOOO!" haha Elder Mereki never hesitates to crack a joke, even after having teeth pulled i guess because the rest of the day he called me "Dr. Pitt or Dr. Elder Pitt" and i wasnt complaining about it!
Saturday- Nothing much happened at all because Elder Mereki and i were at our residence all day letting him sleep and recover! I worked on my Tagalog alot and read almost half of the Book of Mormon! Its a pretty good book i might add, if you havent read it i would invite you to! hahah Elder Mereki now hates jello because he ate so much of it on saturday and i cant blame him! The language is getting alot better and although i dont understand the grammar and the order of words i love Tagalog, it is awesome!
Sunday was a blessing in whole! It was the last sunday for the missionaries who have been in the MTC for their 6 weeks so they all gave talks and expressed their love for so many things, one thing they all talked about what the blessing of prayer and knowing you can talk to God when, where, and for however long you want! Seriously you can! Because the two zone leaders were leaving our President assigned Elder Palacio and I to be the leaders so we were in meetings all day with our Branch President! Then during church Elder Mereki and I taught all of the Elders about the blessing of being obedient! Elder Mereki was stubborn about teaching, he could barely speak, was in pain, and still refused to go back and rest. Im so glad he didnt because he KILLED the lesson. I just sat in my chair and let him have the floor! hahaha At our devotional we heard from Bishop Waddell from the presiding bishopric! I was like wait im confused didnt we just hear from him?? And it dawned on me he spoke at General Conference! He gave an amazing talk and emphasized the importance on serving a mission, not just going on a mission. It was a great talk, and i agree with him 100%!
Monday was fun! Elder Palacio and I went to go get Elder Kainga from the doctors office and his companion! Finally he is done with going to the hospital for his pains and has got the right medicine!! Everyone loves Elder Kainga including myself and we've missed him since hes been gone so much!
Tuesday- I love tuesdays because that is when we have choir practice, and yes i know im terrible at singing but we go to choir practice every week because the conductor tells the best stories about church history or just faith based stories in general. And he is so so funny!! His daughter emailed him on her p day, she is serving someone on the east coast, and told him about how much her week sucked and was just venting to him about how she was trying her absolute hardest and still no luck, from 2 flat tires, to being cussed out and everything else she was annoyed. His response to her was "Think about how hard Christs mission was." and that was it, the next week she replied to him and said something along the lines of "Dad, the first three days after i read your email i was so mad at you and was upset you didnt give me real good advice. Then i thought about what you said, and i understood completely why you only said that sentence. Christ had the hardest mission anyone has ever had! Think about how tough it was for Christ to do all the things he did, his whole life, sinless." It was so good to hear! He went on to explain more about Christ and then he ended with a funny story he had on his mission but i couldnt stop thinking about what he said to her, it was and is so true!
Wednesday was rough because the older missionaries left! All of the sisters were crying and the Elders were all macho but we all knew we were sad. Cant wait to hear from them on their P day though! They helped me so much with getting used to the MTC and i definitely made some really close friends! Then we got the new missionaries for our zone! Because of Visa problems and such, none of the missionaries from Kiribati (11 of them) didnt show up! So we only got 4 new missionaries but we still love em and we are already super close! That about sums up my week. I love it here! But i cant wait to get to the Philippines!
Love you all! Sorry for the spelling again
-Elder Pitt
Pictures
1. Before the Surgery
2. After (hahahah)
3. Taking out his gauze!
4.Elder Solis and I! He is so so funny



--
Elder Pitt

Week 2

I stole the idea of having my journal with me when writing emails from Elder Fafita but now i will know what to write in the email and hopefully not forget anything! (thats write i actually use a journal!) Also i apologize for the typo's!

So on Friday we were all just preparing to listen to General Conference by reading previous talks and discussing ones we liked and ones we wanted to share with others. We were in the lunch room and one of the Elders in our zone, Elder Solis, who is from utah and is SUPER funny was talking to some missionaries we hadnt met before, he said "Yah so last Wednesday I came here lookin for a job and the people at the front took my backpack an handed me this nametag, then they told me to go to this class and ive been here since then!" We were all busting up laughing and the new missionaries believed him hahah, after we told them he was lying they were cool about it and actually live in the same building as us so whenever we see them Elder Solis talks about how hes getting promoted to the MTC in The Philippines! You start to think everything's really funny in the MTC but its all good! Sister Calaway had her birthday so we sang to her and that was about it!

Saturday was so good! It started out with some excitemnent! That being that Elder Mereki and i locked oursleves out of the room after showering hahah so we had to call the front desk because all of our zone was gone to get us ood seats for conference! I told them i would love to come to the front desk to get a spare key but i wasnt sure if only having a towel on would meet the dressing and grooming requirements of the MTC, the front lady laughed or about a solid minute then had security come open th door for us hahaha. the first session of General Conference was so good! It ended on a high note, literally, with Come Thou Fount, i had goosebumps the entire song, it was so good. S/O to the sister, Whitney for singing that song at my farewell! The Choir almost sang as good as whit did. After the first session we ate lunch then watched the second session! I can explain how amazing both sessions were but all i can say is to watch them yourself! The teachings and stories are extraordinary, and all you have to do is type in April 2016 General Conference LDS and i bet the first couple websites will have them all! Dinner was delicious, and then watched another session of conference specific for the Men of The Church, while the Sisters watched a session for them! After all was over we met as a district and discussed our favorite parts of the conference. It was so powerful to hear all the different views we had but how it all center in the base of how much Christ loves us and how we need to follow the examples He set for us!

Sunday had another amazing conference! During the first session Elder Polacio, the district leader in the other district pulled me out of the conference because his companion Elder Kainga was in sever pain in his stomach and couldnt stand up to go to the doctors, Elder Kainga just got moved into the new district and hes been sick for a while. He was in tears and had a bloody nose! I felt so bad for him because i bet its hard to adjust so much from the Kiribati Islands to America! We called the doctor and were asking him the location of his pain, what made it hurt and so on, because it was sunday, the doctors and medical center here was closed so we gave him some medicine we got from the front desk and he went back to the residence at about 11. He slept until the next morning!! Besides waking up because we forced him to eat and take more medicine. Later that night we had a devotional and listen to Vocal Point from BYU! They were very very good. All were return missionaries and talked about their missions in between the songs, it was really cool to hear their advice and listen to their stories.

Monday came and went as usual! Elder Mereki has to have physical therapy for his lower back. Who would have thought that my companion would have been the one with back problems on his mission and not me right? hahaha! Every monday we walk to the health clinic down the road to his appointment. I can see BYU and the apartments where i would hang out with Alyssa Palmer, Olivia and Allie! Then if i look really close i can see the Little ceasers right by where my old apartment complex is! I would be lying if i said i hadnt thought about taking a detour back to the MTC but dont worry mom and dad i am being obedient!

Tuesday was amazing! Why do you ask? Because we got to play baskeball for the first time since last Friday of course! And to top it all off, i might have talked to one of the trainers there about the National Championship Basketball game hahah no shame!! I heard it was a crazy game! I love how our Father in Heaven gives us these challenges (not being able to watch the game) because they make us stronger!! hahaha. Later that night Emily Johns found me and gave me a cookie and orange juice! How she knew i wanted a cookie is beyon me, but maybe it is because i always want a cookie im not sure!

Wednesday was very busy and long. As if it wasnt hard enough on the Elders from Kiribati, Elder Kainga went to the hospital to get tests done on his stomach and see what the problem is! He struggles to get around and doesnt like to lift anything it is the worst but he has such a good outlook and attitude! Elder Mereki woke up with a swollen jaw and in pain, we scheduled an appointment with the nurse for the next day but at about 4, his swelling was getting worse and although he wasnt telling a soul, he was in pain. We went back to the health clininc and right away they called a car to take us to a dentist to look. When they took the X-ray they saw is wisdom tooth laying at like a flat 90 degrees, AND on the other side of his jaw he has a tooth that needs to be extracted! I feel so bad for him and would appreciate it immensly if you all could keep him, and Elder Kainga in your thoughts and prayers! Elder Mereki Gets surgery tommorow morning! Elder Kainga has been given some medicine that seems to be working! I got to host new incoming missionaies and show them around the MTC! The best part was that i ran into Sister Kump or should i say Hermana Kump and got to talk to her for a while! Her Spanish is so good! and it was really good to catch up with her and about home/school etc.!

And now we are at today, P day! The day everyone looks forward to hahaha! This morning we went to the Temple as a zone and after had lunch together. Because Elder Mereki is "going under" tomorow for his operation he got to call home to Kiribati to tell his parents and inform them! I. HAVE. NEVER. SEEN. HIM. MORE. EXCITED.

Hes been in pain for days, is getting two teeth pulled tomorrow, has never had an IV or gone under anesthetic, doesnt really know why they are pulling out two teeth and has been so stressed but in that moment of his dad answering the phone, (and the time change in Kiribati made it 5:50 am there) and getting to here the voices of his mom dad and sister, ive never seen him smile bigger, as i thought about how happy he was i noticed how big the smile on my face was. Families are so important. We were talking just a few minutes ago and he said that if he had to go through all the pain hes gone through, and will go through tomorrow, to talk to his parents again, hed do it in a heartbeat. I love him so much. And i love my family. Families are central in our Father in Heavens plan for us. And i know or a fact that families can become closer to eachother when we come closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. The MTC is awesome. I love hearing from the people who email and write me and if anyone ever wants to write me feel free to! Also if anyone ever wants to send the missionaries from Kiribati anything i know they would love it! (They eat anything and everything) and we have a microwave too! hint hint at mom and dad for some popcorn right? hahah I miss you all. Please everyone be safe and ill talk to you guys next week!

-Elder Pitt