Basketball and Rain

hope everyone had a great week! Ill start this email off with Tuesday when one of my favorite parts of the week occurred! We were waiting for the Sisters in our area to arrive for a dinner appointment we had set up in a barangay right next to a basketball court. As we were standing by the court I was watching the guys play a game, and one of them saw the tall white "americano" and started yelling "hey Joe! Hey Joe! Whats your name! You like basketball?"

I said oo (yes) and they all started to laugh, then they started to talk a little bit a crap about how Americans arent as good as them at basketball hahah. Then my chance came. One of them said "you want to play one on one Joe and learn how to play?" I looked at him, took off my bag and went into the court where everyone around starting laughing and gathering around. Elder Golle knew exactly what I was thinking when I looked at him and he said to the players in Tagalog "If Elder Pitt wins, we get to share a message with you about Christ, but if Elder Pitt loses, he will buy all of you soft drinks and candy!" (Now i didnt plan on buying ALL of them so much candy and soft drinks but i agreed anyway haha). I played a kid named Ernesto to 7 points, make it take it... He said I could have the ball first and I made two 3 pointers in a row then a lay up to win. (The form is still good coach!) Everyone was laughing SO hard and freaking out! Ernesto was shocked it was so funny! I looked over at Elder Golle and he was laughing almost rolling on the ground the game went by so fast hahah. The coolest part was that they were all excited to hear the lesson as well. Almost imiedialty after the game ended they all come over and sat around waiting to hear our message which we werent even sure we were going to teach or not. It was an awesome lesson with them, they all had a lot of questions about who Christ was and why he was so important. They also asked where our church was and what time it started. It was seriously so awesome. And then we feasted our hearts out at the Family Home Evening with the Sabado Family. 

On Thursday we met with Danny Mipa, who stopped us one day to ask us what we were doing walking around in white shirts and ties. Danny really loves Christ and he know so much about him. He also knows a lot of English Bible verses that he always says during our messages that connect to our message. Danny wants to be baptized when he "knows for sure we are true" gotta love that small english vocabulary but you gotta love more his enthusiasm and his work ethic so that he will know if our message is true and worth something. He reads the Book of Mormon and prays every night. I hope he comes to church with us on Sunday. 

Speaking of Church, our church here is amazing. Because it is so small it isnt considered a chapel, it is considered a meetinghouse. And about 4 months ago they averaged 19 people going to church on Sundays. Yesterday.. there were 47 people there. Honestly I cant say its been our efforts that have helped bring more people the worship our Father in Heaven as much as the members of the Branch! So many of them want to help us out in helping others, and on Saturday we are holding a half day mission for the branch! Each person going will come with us to meet other people in the Branch and to help them around their Bahay (home) or offer a spiritual message. Luna Branch is awesome, theres no other words to describe them! This week we also ate with the Ramerez family at a family get together for their daughter who was turning 10! We ate Lechon Baboy (roasted pig) and it was so so good. Not as good as McCary's Meats but still delicious! As i type this im sensing a theme of food here, please dont judge hahah The Filipinos love to feed missionaries and do whenever they can. If they only have a little bit of rice left, not even enough for their families to all eat that night without going into the next town to buy more, they still insist that you eat. It is amazing. 

I love it here in this very small, very hot town. It has been raining a lot and lightning lights up the night sky every night. Its beautiful. I hope everyone has another great week! 

One thing I'd like to share is a passage i read in a book about prayer. It saud that

:Prayer is the key to opening and going through difficult trails, it is not used to open a single door once a day, but to be used to open many doors,everyday. 

Ingat!

-Elder Pitt 

Another Day Another Piso

Hello everyone! As recommended by Mr. Mario Midili, i will try and make this email shorter hahah. This week was so good!! We met the entire zone on tuesday and there is a missionary who actually just finished his mission here from Richland! Cant seem to get away from the bomber pride,,, its everywhere! haha. Elder Golle worked our way around our area trying to meet as many members in the Branch as possible. Weve really grown close to the Branch President and his family and it has helped us a lot in finding out where everyone lives and also advice about the area! Tuesday night was awesome, in the morning i was still adjusting to life here and was kinda frustrated with the heat and food and all.. then we took a trike back from meeting the zone and I saw a car with Washington State license plates! WHAT? I freaked out but Elder Golle was so confused why hahaha then that night we went out to get dinner and i met a guy wearing EWU basketball shorts! Gotta love the 509 pride in my heart hahaha. Also, I ate Balut! Surprisingly enough it was masarap! (delicious) and it was so good i might have gotten a second one too! hahah We ate balut, chicken intestines and rice and ulam. So so good! Who would have guessed it would be so good haha i guess the Filipinos did! The rest of the week every day we went out finding new people to teach! Everyone here is so nice and willing to listen to our message. They help me a lot when i mess up speaking Tagalog which is good. Every single night it thunderstorms like crazy and the lightning is so bright! We only had rain during the day once, and the rain felt so nice! It gave us a chance to cool off from the heat! Elder Golle and I find things to work on or practice as we walk. Some of the houses are about 1/4 a mile away from other houses, and then in some areas, its about 2 miles from a barangay and then in the barangay there are hundreds and hundreds! As we walk, I speak Tagalog and he speaks English and we correct eachother! His accent cracks me up, then i think about how bad my accent probably is and i become very humbled haha. I love having time every morning to study scriptures, or church works. It helps me so much prepare for the day and learn more about Christ! I was never a big reader but I am already starting to love books and read ones that other missionaries or are Mission President have us read!

We were walking through a barangay one day and i gentleman stopped and asked us if we wanted to buy any of his fighting chickens! He said he would listen to our message if we took a tour of his chickens it was so funny hahaha.

We have two children who live with their grandparents in our branch, Cara and Zed. They are awesome! They are 11 and 9 and are so so smart about The Church! Thy want to be baptized so bad but their mom who lives abroad is against it for now. Hopefully she will change her mind, its a tough situation but its okay because at the end of the day I know that life is still great! Quick shoutout to the one and only Shellz Pitt, mom happy birthday!! (coming soon)!!!

On saturday we will be going with members of the Branch to help give service to those in need! Hopefully We will be with someone who likes to speak English hahah! Everyone knows english but prefers not to talk in english, they feel self conscious about sounding wrong and im like cmon guys are you kidding me! Im wrong all the time! hahaha The snacks are delicious too! Because we are in such a small city there isnt a 7/11 or gas station so there arent any american snacks, (reall missin those kit kats and snickers haha) but theres a twinkie look alike called and Fudgee Bar. They are so so good!! Elder Golle and i will rock paper scissors almost everyday to see whos buying the fudgee bars that day!

I love it here. Its a great place with greater people. I hope my pictures go through! Im still trying to figure out the best way to send pictures from my camera, each computer shop is different! Take care everyone and make sure to send my mom a happy birthday message ;)
--

Elder Pitt

First week in the Phillipines

Hello from the Philippines! Lets start this email off on Wednesday when I got to host Malerie.. Or should I say Sister Pitt into the MTC!! The work is an awesome work and I'm so happy I got to see her and the rest of my family when they dropped her off! So on our way to the airport we took the Front Runner and were getting off before the Front Runner went past our stop.. Elder Katutu forgot his bag in the train- (you are all allowed to roll your eyes because I did as well)- and so he got back on to grab it.. Pretty good idea right? Forget a bag, go back in and grab it.. Well I dont know about the FrontRunners in Kiribati but the ones in Utah dont really wait that long so the door shuts while hes in there and starts to leave!!!!! I dont know what happened inside the train but he must have done something loud enough to make the driver stop and open up the doors hahahaha. We didnt know if we should have all hugged him because we were so worried or beat him up but it was a good experience ill say that! We flew from SLC to LA, hungout in the airport, ate Panda Express.. Twice (no judgement please) and hung out for a couple hours! We met the BYU Womens Volleyball team at the aiport, They were headed to Hong Kong as well! After the food coma subdued we then hopped on the plane to head to Hong Kong! Fun fact of the day: Cathay Pacific Airlines, the airlines we flew, has never had a plane have mechanical failures of any kind when there has been a missionary on the plane! So with 21 missionaries and the BYU volleyball team, im sure the captain could feel that we were in very good hands! hahah So get this, we left the aiport about 11:45 ish on Wednesday the 4th, and landed in Hong Kong on Friday the 5th! I apologize to all native-Mexicans because i missed Cinco de mayo in its entirety! The Hong Kong airport was super gorgeous! And the flight to Manila from Hong Kong went by super quick, which is what should have been expected after a 15 hour flight hahaha. The Philippines is amazing! Its so gorgeous and the people are so nice. I have been here only a short couple days and already feel the genuine love people have for each others. 

The Philippines MTC is right across the street from the B.E.A.utiful Manila Temple, if you havent seen what it looks like, google it! It is so much bigger in person as well! On Thursday we met with our Mission President, President Balledos! Hes awesome and so is his wife! We were assigned our Trainers for the next 12 weeks and my trainer is Elder Golle! He is from the Philippines but I dont remember where! Every new missionary received a trainer and their assigned area. All f the trainers were already previously assigned in their areas so they ha lessons planned and peple t talk to and all that good jazz.. BUT (theres always a but am i right) Elder Golle and I were assigned t open a new area!! So what does that mean? 1. We have no knowledge of where anything is, 2. That includes our apartment, 3. We have no plans or people to talk to 4. We dont knw who the church leader in that area is, and 4. The Lord is on our side!! 

Our area is Luna, la union. It is very small and the neighborhoods are separated into what is called a Barangay or a Rimos! It is also very very hot and humid! But that is okay hahah. The first day we were here we cleaned the entire apartment because no one had been living there before and it was SO dirty! I can only describe the feeling i had about how dirty it was with the example of my feeling when i had trashed my house after school and i heard the garage door start to open, meaning my mom was home and she was about to kill me! hahah (love yah Shellz) 

On Saturday we went around and met with the members of the ward and the Branch President of Luna. President Ramirez is a really cool guy and very smart. He expressed his concerns to us and told us to stop by whenever for water or food while we are walking.. I have a feeling we might take up his offer haha! 

Sunday was our first Sabbath Day with the Luna Branch! The meetinghouse is very very small. I taught Young Mens and Elder Golle taught a different class so it was just me and the young men!! I will be humble and say yes my Tagalog is terrible hahaha but they helped me out and corrected me whenever i said something wrong! It almost turned into a game of who could correct Elder Pitt first hahha but they are awesome. 

Like i said the meeting house is very small. There are about 3 rooms and then a bigger room in the middle where we all meet as a congregation for sacrament meeting. Its very hot with everyone in one room, no AC and very close to each other. BUT! It was one of the best meetings ever. People here have a very rough life and it is difficult for them to make it to church but there faith is so strong and some how The Man upstairs makes it possible! 

Most of our zone is Filipino and the missionaries close to us in our district are all Filipino except one so I never really here English unless its my thoughts. Its good because i am always around the language that i am trying to learn but hard because i dont always know what is going on. Time and hard work will change all! I love it here in Luna and I absolutely love the people! Everyone here either makes fun of me for being white or loves me because im white hahhah!

BASKETBALL COURTS EVERYWHERE! So whenever we pass one and a teen calls me "Joe" or "Americano" ill play a quick game of one on one and 90 percent of the time i can hold my own lol, everyone here is shorter than i am so rebounds are no problem. A big thank you to all of the basketball coaches i have had to prepare for this mission!! I miss you all and would love to here from you all! Have awesome weeks!! 

Elder Pitt 

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

First Letter from Elder Pitt:

Kumusta po lahat ka?? Its been 8 days since I entered the MTC and I am so grateful for the opportunity! I love it here! To start off, the food is delicious and its all you can eat so if that doesnt make you want to come into the MTC i dont know what does! Its what signed me up! haha all joking aside it is great. The first day was very busy and long but also very uplifting, my entire district is awesome, we have two Sister missionaries, from arizona and utah, and then me and 4 Elders, all of the Elders are from Kiribati! Very small islands in the pacific somewhat nearby Fiji! They pronounce their nation "Key-Dee-Pass" and will correct you if you say it any other way hahah, the first night was rough with them mostly because they hardly know any english, and i dont know a lick of Kiribati so our communication was a little difficult. But it changed almost immediately. The first morning together the Elders grabbed air freshener instead of shaving cream to shave and were so lost on my there was no cream coming out, all while spraying air freshener on their faces. After i got them the shaving cream they didnt know how to work the pad locks we got for our personal items. Such simple things that i never really had to work to learn, was making all of them so so frustrated and anxious. Ever since then they have taught me many things and vise versa. One important thing they taught me was the importance or brotherhood. Everyone of them has each others back and will do anything for one another. They welcomed me in with open arms and we are now very close to eachother in just a matter of 8 days. My companion is Elder Mereki ("Medic") and he is the jokester of the entire zone. He asks "whats this" to everything but im glad top answer the question for him! We all worked together to get their cameras working and now all they do is take pictures its hilarious hahah! We had an Elder who was supposed to go into the MTC the same day as us show up late. His trip from Miami to the MTC was the worst. Elder Palacio and his parents drove from Miami to Denver but got stuck in a snow storm at the airport, then his dad had to get emergency surgery to take out his appendix! After all of that he flew by himself to the MTC and was 3 days late so he was behind on the Tagalog we had learned. Something really awesome occured though, because his companion from his district is from Kiribati aswell (theyre everywhere hahaha) our president had me go with him to get set apart as a missionary, and a member of the Quorum of The Seventy from the Church was going to set him apart. Sooo we both got to meet Elder W. Craig Zwick and was with him for over an hour! I think the best part was he brought us both a taco from "the outside world". I dont think i have ever eaten a better taco in my life! Easter Sunday was AMAZING! Our Branch President made us all join the MTC choir so we sing at all devotionals, we heard from Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of The Twelve Apostles! As he walked in we all stood up and sang, I am so happy we had to be in the choir because it was so spiritual and powerful. He gave a great talk on the power of repentance and how Christ is and should be the center of out lives! It really was one of the best Easters ever. That night we listened to a talk from Elder Bednar. The. Most. Amazing. Talk. I cant explain how relevant, powerful, and emotional it was. I wish i could tell you guys all that has happened. everyday is an adventure. Tagalog is beautiful, i feel bad when i speak it beacuse i know i butcher it but that is what practice is for! The teachers only speak Tagalog to us, which is rough but also really good and it pushes me to learn what they are saying. There is a missionary here in my zone from Pasco! Sister Calaway! Crazy to think we never met eachother before but we have so many mutual friends! hahah whenever the Kiribati Elders and Sisters speak in their native toungue sister Calaway and i just start talking about home! Alam ko po na ni JesuCristo ang tagapaglitas namin. I love you all and I cant wait for General Conference! Here are some pics! 

Our name tags are in english not tagalog, dont ask me why because no one knows hahah the second picture is of my district! in order Elder Mereki, Elder Katutu (kahsusu) me, Elder Baabo, and down belows Elder Kainga! Sister Calaway and i takin a selfie! and then Elder Mereki and i late night studying the good word!  

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Elder Pitt