Christmas Day Skype

This was Christmas Day for Elder Molnar but Christmas Eve for us.  It took forever for us to get the video working for him.  We could see him, but he could not see us.  "Fix it!" he kept saying.  So we had a prayer and viola!  It was P-day for them, thus the casual clothes.  We did get to meet his companion Elder Hubble from Mesa, AZ and two sisters.  We were nearly speechless and no one wanted to say goodbye. He sang a song for us in Tagalog and we had to leave it up to him to leave.  It was great to see him, but for me, I think more difficult than just chatting on the phone.  He is nearly 1/4 of the way through his mission.  For those of you who weren't here to see him, he sends his love.

Mom

12/19/12

HEY!! aight so let's see..

Hahah, so taylor got his toenail "fixed" too? Ha, well if it makes him feel better, once I'm not so busy, I'm gonna have to go back and get another one taken off. Ha...oh well. 

Aight, so let's see. update. So I'm leading the area as of now. My new comp, who is also our district leader, is Elder Hubble. He's a way funny kid from Mesa, Arizona. We have a blast. We always walk around and beat box and freestyle rap. Haha! We're so white! Here, this is one of our normal days we've had so you can get a feel of how things have been going. The other day, we had a few good lessons then got punted a few times so we we're kinda walking around for a minute trying to find places to go. We stopped by a less active family. the parents both work internationally, so they haven't been in town for 3 months. I got to meet the mom, and she was so excited about her kids. Her oldest has been less active for a while now since they're always gone, but we've been working with him and the Single Adults have done a great job in reactivating him. And she was so stoked 'cause now her son wants to go on a mish. She had a co worker I met. He was taught by missionaries about 10 years ago and loved it, but had to stop because of his job. But I talked to him for a while and we got his info, so missionaries can go back. So sick! That guy's basically ready to get baptized. No joke. Then we were walking around, just gettin' hit on by all the school girls and having Dragonball Z fights with little kids on the streets. Just the usual. Ya know..

Ha!  Then my comp saw this drunk guy totally hammered, walking around. So my comp told me I should talk to him. So I did. Might as well just for fun. Drunk people are funny. We walked with him for like two seconds and then we walked by his house and he was like,"you guys coming in?" And then walked inside. We were gonna just give him a pamphlet, but he walked inside too soon. We had time, so we were like, ha might as well. Went inside. His family was there and was kinda laughing like, "What the heck, drunk dad just brought home these two goofy lookin' white kids". But they were super nice. It was kind of a joke at first and we had some very interesting talks with the drunk guy. He kept talking in third person and he kept asking, "Would you believe my name's Alex?" But we talked with the fam a bit about the church, and they said we could come back. surprisingly. And they were actually pretty enthusiastic about it too. Lots of Word of Wisdom issues and abuse in the family. I could tell pretty easily. We went back the other day, but couldn't teach cause only girls were there. But I'm way stoked to help this family, and they were super excited to see us. But there's the drunk guy who's 57, and he has a couple kids who have their own kids and families. Sick! And they're all dentists so they're way loaded. But yeah!

Oh, I met my first Down Syndrome Philippino the other day.He gave me a hug and told me he missed me, gave me his number and asked for "a bible". Ha!

Leading the area's good. It's really helped my Tagalog too, which is good cause it still sucks. S'all good though. I was pretty proud. My comp and I had to end up teaching Gospel Principles class at church, so he taught half then I taught half. I actually taught pretty well, but don't worry For some reason, some of my lessons later that day, my Tagalog wasn't too good. God made sure to humble me.

Oh, last night we went to the temple and took a bunch of families and a couple of our recent converts. They put Christmas lights up kinda like a lil' temple square, and we did a tour for the missionaries and our homies we brought. Way sick!

Eh that's about it for now. See ya next week! Literally!! Via Skype. I'll set up a Skype and get it to work,  but I'm calling on Christmas day for me at 11:00 am, my time. So that's I think 8:00 pm Monday night for you guys? Invite whoever: Brittany, Weston, Ben. It'll be good to see you guys. I can't wait! I guess just stay near the computer and we'll make it work.

PS: I started doing P90X every morning, so when you see how fat I've gotten, don't freak out too much.

Love ya guys!

Oh, and tell Bishop Soper, thanks for the letter. I liked it a lot. Sorry, I never have time to write much.

12/12/12

What it do mom?! sup? (will edit the typos later - mom)

So this will be real quick. Pretty busy today 'cause we got transfer day tomorrow. But that's too bad about Sister Brailsford. Oh and for the music, if you haven't figured it out yet, don't worry about it. Not a big deal. That's sick about Mckay's call! Make sure he gets a congrats and a nice big hug from me. Everyone doin' aight?

Well lets see. So, I'm finally finished with my 3 month training. Woo! Now I only have to study for 3 hours in the morning instead of 4. But yeah, my comp's getting transferred, so I'll be leading my area... ha. I'm super bad at directions and the Philippines have so many streets and houses and no street names or addresses or anything really. Ha oh well. I'm stoked to stay here though. My wards the best and I'm excited to stay here for Christmas. Ha! I've been praying I wouldn't transfer before Christmas. Oh, and I'll let you know all the details for our Skype sesh next Wednesday. 

Some highlights from the week:  We went caroling last night and took hymn books and cookies my comp and I made to some less actives and a few of our recent converts. Haha!  That was fun. Apparently I have a good voice.  Ha! that's a first. A lot of people are pretty bad at singing even though they all sing karaoke 24/7. Haha! I love it. the people here crack me up.

Today I went shopping with Elder Christensen, a kid from Alpine, UT. We shopped at this super busy place with a bunch of little shops on the streets. I'm gettin' pretty pro at bargaining. I just work my charms with my crappy Tagalog and get stuff for way cheap. I bought two bags, a fake Oakley and a fake North Face, a sick pair of shoes and two sick hats for like 10 bucks. Pretty proud. 

The work here is still going great! Our ward's improved so much since we've been here. No joke. Ha, even though half our ward didn't come to church Sunday cause Pacquiao (a Philippino boxer everyone is obsessed with) had a fight on Sunday. 

But yeah, hope you're all doing well. I'm excited for our Skype sesh in a few weeks! I'll let ya know all the details soon.

Love,
Elder Molnar

12/5/11

Woah what up? Happy almost Christmas!! Ah, I'm so stoked.  Yeah, I got one of the packages so far. I should get the other one soon. Thanks! I'll let ya know what I end up doing with the toys.  I've got some good ideas ;)

I'm glad to hear John's coming up for Christmas. Hopefully I'll getta skype him too. We have transfer day next week, but I'm pretty sure I'll be staying, which I really hope so. I don't wanna leave right before Christmas. But we've got some fun stuff coming up. Tonight we're making a ton of cookies with a member family for our ward caroling sesh on Friday. We're gonna carol a bunch of less actives and give some cookies and a hymn book and stuff. Put you guys on the prayer roll at the temple today.

But this week was dope. Our investigator, John got baptized Saturday, and confirmed/got the Priesthood on Sunday. So sick. That kid's a stud. I can't wait to see him go on a mission. It was cool 'cause we're the ones who started teaching him, so I got to see the whole changing process. So sick.

John Baptism

Another thing that made my companion and I feel good, we were having some H to H with a less active family who we've been working a lot with. Sister said to us that we saved their marriage. Before we came along, she was about ready to kick Brother out of the house. He's an amazing guy and has a strong testimony, but he struggles hard with drinking and other things. But that comment made my day. Obviously there's still a long way to go to get them into the temple and get brother to baptize his daughter, but I've loved seeing the progress these families make through the gospel. Crazy.

Welp, that's about it for now. Enjoy the pics! Oh wait, ha. The kid we baptized Saturday, he plays basketball on our ward team so we went to their tournament for a minute yesterday to support him and teach afterwards. Anyways, haha I loooove watching Pinoys play basketball. They go all out. Jerseys, huge announcing equipment, etc. Haha, they look so goofy. They all have terrible form and all think they're Michael Jordan when they play. Plus the announcer talks super fast and high pitched and sounds super Asian. Churchball is crazy. Our ward was going insane yesterday. Ha, we probably had more people there than we do at sacrament. But yeah, so funny.

K, well I'll talk to ya soon. Skype ya soon! I have a couple members who said we could use their computers. I'll probably do it at the Cardinos. They're the best and they actually speak English so you guys could meet them. Brother's the best though. he used to teach at the MTC and has been teaching little Tagalog lessons to me and my comp every once in a while.

But yeah that's all for now. Enjoy the pics! Love ya guys! Happy Christmas! Don't worry I'm buying plenty of presents for myself!

(Captions not included with the photos.  I did the best I could - Mom)

Mosquito - Philippines size

Not one of the larger spiders

Wedding before the baptism

Wedding Cake

Enjoying Thanksgiving!

11/26/12

Sup mom?!

This will be a bit shorter. Not too much happened and I don't have a whole lot of time, but we just got done playin' ball with some of the young men in our ward. Killed it! Ha Pilipinos are so funny. Freak, I don't even know what happened.

Hope Thanksgiving was good. We had a little feast ourselves, but oh well. Only one more Thanksgiving to go!

Hmmm our investigator John is gettin' baptized Saturday. I've been lookin' forward to this one. This kid's a freakin' stud. He showed up to church yesterday all shirt and tie and everything. Yeah, one more year and this kid will be a missionary. I can see it. So sick. I'll send some more pictures next Wednesday. We have Temple Day day next week so p-day will be on Wednesday. Life's goin' good though. I'll have some time to write letters later so i'll give you guys a better update.

Oh by the way, we need to figure out what the plan is for Christmas skyping sesh. K, so I'll call Christmas day here, so it'll be like Christmas eve night for you guys. Hopefully around 7 or 8 for you guys at night. But yeah I'll let you know for sure eventually, but they told us to coordinate that.

Aight... love you too dad. Tell him I found a guy who makes sick caribou horn belts. I'll get him one.

But yeah - love you guys!

Happy Thanksgiving from Elder Peter Molnar and some of his friends

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11/19/12

What's good mom?

Sooo, yeah. Get the kids something from me for Christmas, for sure. Honestly I don't really need anything from the States, Oh and the Bamgartners wrote me, so tell them I can only write to family. But yeah, Santa Maria is in my mission. I'm in a different zone though, Novaliches, which is in Caloocan City. Ha yea, definitely a new experience here but it's a blast.

So for the weeks update!.. .Aight, so life's good, just swingin' from vines, catching fireflies at night, when it rains, kicking these giant bull frogs on the street. just the usual. Yeah, the saying everything's bigger in Texas...bull!! Ha! things are way bigger here. We found a mosquito in our house last night the size of almost the palm of my hand. No wonder I get eaten alive at night. Not as bad anymore though. They just love my American blood.

But yeah, same ol' same ol'. Hmm...had a way sick week though. We found a lot of new people and new investigators. Killed it! We were walkin' down the street on a day after gettin' punted by a few appointments, and this lady came up and was like,"Hello Elders." So we were like "Whaaaat?" "Hello Elders", she said. "I used to be taught by missionaries back in the day. Want to come teach my family?" DUH! So we went and taught them. Way nice. The Chu family. Her husband is a member, kinda less active though. Her sister wants to get baptized but can't for another 3 years cause of marriage laws here. but we're teaching their kids! Three of them are old enough to get baptized, so we'll see! The parents came to church yesterday.

We also taught this 18 year old kid named Duding. He's a stud. His girlfriend's a member and came to church a few times. We taught him 3 days in a row this weekend and got his bap date set. So sick. Way dope week week this week. Love the fact of God is preparing people here to hear the gospel. Makes our job so much easier.

But that's about it! Just got done bowling at the mall for P-day. Way sick. Elder Redder, a kid from my health class at UVU, was there, so we got to kick it today. Dope!

Aight, love you all! Hope you like the Christmas cards i sent!

11/12/12

Freak! That's so crazy with all the mission calls everyone's gettin lately. Tell them all congrats for me. Has Ben Wright gotten his yet?

Yea, Thanksgiving's coming up. We're gonna make pizza at a members house for it. Yeah, hopefully I stay in my area for another transfer 'cause a part member/less active family said we could use their stuff to Skype [for Christmas]. They're freakin loaded. It's the family we took to temple tour. Too bad they don't speak English but you can still meet them I guess.

Oh, tell the Tan's and the Faggioli's thanks for the letters. Have Jesse's mom keep me updated on Jesse. Italy this week! Sick!. Oh, and tell the Taniguchi's thanks for the headlamp. We didn't have electricity for 3 days and one night I had to get up and [us the bathroom], and it's the Philippines so you don't have much control over your bowels, so I had to [go to the bathroom] in our pitch black bathroom. But luckily I remembered i had that headlamp. Saved my life.

Yeah so Obama won? Welp, that sucks. But on the bright side, I had a dream earlier this week that he won, so I've been telling everyone I was psychic. Called it.

Yeah being on a mission is a lot more of a sacrifice than I thought, especially here. I've learned I've had to sacrifice my body as well as everything else. So so far I've gained 12 pounds. and I stood in front of a full body mirror the other day and found out where its going. Right to my gut and my butt. I stand sideways and I have this weird little "S" shape goin' on. Yeah... although it is kinda cool. I've never had butt before.

Haha! So I saw my first big spider here. We were eatin' dinner at a family's house, just kickin' it and I look up and was like,"Tunay ba 'yan?!" is that real?! there was this huge spider like the size of my hand just chillin' on the ceiling. They were like yeah, he comes down but you just poke him and he goes away. Ha yeah. In the States you see a little dime sized spider and everyone screams to kill it. Here, you see one the size of your face and you just poke it and it goes away. So I was like, so it's nice? Like you can hold it? "yeah yeah it's nice." So i poked it with a stick to get it off the ceiling and it started grabbing the stick and biting it. So I asked, you sure it's nice? It's kinda biting the stick. "Yeah it's just a gagambahay". Just a friendly house spider. Anyways, let's just say I had some fun chasing it for a while trying to get the [nerve] to grab it. Yeah. I poked it with my finger and that's about it. Then some guy comes and starts chasing it, grabbing at it and gets a leg, and the leg fell off and the spider left. So nuts! I can't wait to see the bird eating spiders. Oh, and soon we're gonna fight spiders. That's what kids do for fun since they can't afford toys. Catch a spider, shake it in your hand till it's biting you cause it's [ticked] and then put it on a stick and fight em! Dope!

Primary program yesterday. Ha, so funny. Little kids are hilarious. Plus the program was in English so these kids had these high pitched little Asian accents. Ha, I was dying.

Well that's all for now! Sorry nothing spiritual. But yeah, love you guys!

First Baptism

Oh yeah it's Aria's birthday. Make sure you tell her happy birthday for me! Thanks for sending me the Dear Elders of the bois blogs. That's sick Spencer's finally in Argentina. Yeah if you could keep doing that just sending me those through dear elders that'd be great. it's nice to be able to hear about them. Have you heard from Conner yet? But yeah keep those coming!

Thanks for sending the package. I should be gettin' it pretty soon. I would send a Christmas package home for you guys but its so dang expensive to send things. I'll just make sure I buy lots of stuff for everyone before I come home. Everything's super cheap here for the most part. but yeah glad to hear everyone's doing good. Ah, it's gonna be so crazy to see Cyrus and Aria when I come home. Can't wait. Oh and yeah, I've seen Elder Waite a few times now.

Aight, so I had a way sick weekend. Ready? So there's this less family we've been visiting and trying to reactivate them and help the brother get worthy so he can baptize her daughter. But yeah, so we had temple tour on Saturday and took them with us as well as some of their katulongs or helpers/maids or whatever, and their driver who are gonna be some of our new investigators. But yeah, the family's way rich. So we took them and another less active to our temple tour so they can see the temple, learn about it and all that. We do one of these once a transfer. So that was way sick.

Right after that we went to the church and one of our investigators got married and baptized. So sick! They have a kid so obviously they had to get married first before she could get baptized. Her husband was a less active we were working with too. But yeah, they got married at the church then we had her baptized and her husband then got to baptize her. How dope is that? 

This week has been crazy getting everything ready. My companion and I baked a cake and cupcakes at a members house for the wedding and basically had to do everything to get stuff ready. Super crazy. Ha, oh and my comp and I sang "Nearer my God to Thee" in Tagalog for the baptism. But yeah, way sick. I'll email a few pictures in a minute.

But yeah, that was my first baptism. Not much else has happened this week just cause we were gettin' ready for Saturday. Oh, but we have our temple day next Wednesday, so that'll be Tuesday as well. Talk to you then!

Love you guys!

10/31/12

Happy Halloween ya'll!!

Haha mom, I like your question. "Can we send some money so you can get stuff for a family in need?" ha mom, I live in probably the most ghetto part of the Philippines. Everyone here is starving and in need. But can you just do this for Christmas, send some little toys and stuff for kids here? Don't worry about sending me anything, just some pictures of you guys. Thanks for the ones you did send, but I meant pictures of the family. It's a good way to bond with members and investigators here. They love seeing pics of us and our fams. Just send whatever pictures of you guys, Aria, Cyrus, etc. maybe some from when heather and i went to Cali Just whatever. oh and the picture of my flipping over the rocks on that glacier. just get it off Facebook so i can show people I was actually pretty cool before i became a missionary. oh but that's way sick about Landon. I'm so stoked for him.

K this week was way sick. oh and dearelder works fine. I don't know what snail mail is. Just finished my first transfer here so our p day is today (Wednesday). I'm still getting trained so i won't get transferred just yet. So a little advice just in case anyone gets their call to somewhere in Asia. Make sure you watch DragonballZ and Ghost Fighter and stuff a lot before you come. Haha everyone loves it here. We had a way good lesson with a less active family, and talked about Dragonballz. Definitely a good way to bond with kids and teenagers.

K here you'll like this story. So there's this Sister who's just returning from being less active for a long time. She's about 40 and has two girls, 19 and 7. we go over there a lot and she loves cooking for us. we're way tight. she's an amazing cook. but yeah so her husband left her a while back, cheated on her and all this stuff and moved to Hawaii. So she's been going through a really rough time. Anyways her husband just came to visit last week and both days he came to her house, he beat her and stuff. anyways on Sunday we had dinner at her house with a couple other of close friends from the ward. after dinner we shared a message about the atonement and we turned the lights off and my companion told the story from 3rd Nephi 9. about coming unto Christ and letting him heal us. after that we all shared testimonies and the spirit was super strong. all of us were in tears. and when I bore testimony and talked about the atonement, my companion later said I shared it in perfect Tagalog. He said if that wasn't the gift of tongues, he didn't know what was. crazy cause I'm still struggling with the language. cool huh?

Aight well there's my spiritual thought of the week. love you all and hope everyone's doing well!

Take care of yourselves!

First Snail Mail from the MTC

9/25/12 - received 10/23/12 (Edited version)

Whassup my family?!

Happy Birthday Dad! Not sure when you'll get this letter, but eh, it's worth a shot. Yeah, so I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday and tell you guys about some of my investigators. I thought it would be cool if you guys kept my investigators in my prayers so you can feel even more a part of the work here in the Pinas. (Skipping the details here - Mom)

There is not any divorce here, so marriage is pretty difficult. So, couples often don't get married. So, lots of chastity issues. And everyone including the little kids, drink and smoke. There are about 600,000 members in the Pinas, but only about 100,000 actives. We spend a lot of time with less actives.

But yea, hope you are all doing well. I'm hanging in there. It's definitely been hard. Hardest thing I've ever done. It's not exactly the nice tropical beach I pictured, instead super poor, hot and one of the most polluted cities in the world. It's been rough lately just not being able to communicate and just thinking I'll be here for 22 more months. But I've found some stuff that helps me remember why I'm here. (Skipping the details again - Mom)

Also, I just keep thinking of this quote, "You will do more good for your family on your mission than if you were home trying to help them."

It'll be easier once I get the hang of things here. For sure. Just gotta remember why I'm here. It's not about me. And if I can sacrifice a few years of hanging out and having fun to help even one family feel the gospel in their life and live together forever, I'd say it's pretty well worth it.

But yea, I can't thank you all enough for your prayers and support. I'll send some pictures home soon.

Oh, and fun fact. Yia Yia, or "yaya" in Tagalog means, "housemaid or servant". Ha, so pretty much the same thing as Yia Yia in Greek.

Love you Mom, Dad, John, Heather, Cyrus, Aria, Kelb and Skylo!!

Dang yeah keep me posted on Landon's call. Oh and Ben's too. I'm stoked to see where they get called to.

So almost done with my first transfer! so nuts. alls still going great. we went to this place called echo park today. way sick. Hopefully we'll go to WaWa for our Pday soon. I'll send some more pictures after that. those places are way sick. not the ghetto I live in haha. how's heather and the kids doing? I havent heard from them yet. yeah mail here kinda sucks. we only get it every two weeks. but tell john and cyrus happy birthday for me. I wrote john a letter a while ago but I have no idea when he'll get it. hope the primary program goes well. ours is coming up in a few weeks so me and my companion are gonna let the little kids borrow our ties for it. should be good.

nothin' new really. Just been workin' hard, teaching new people. I'm super stoked for our investigator sister Danica's wedding and baptism next monday. hmm what else? do you have any questions about the Pinas? I don't really know what else to talk about. I had an investigator start breast feeding in front of us while we were teaching. that was awkward. I've been hearing that would happen soon enough.

Welp the holidays are coming up! got our mini charlie brown status christmas tree and some lights for our apartment. Don't worry, a christmas card will be out shortly. oh and I found what I'm buying myself for christmas. they have some sick filipino style acoustic guitars at the mall here for only like 1500 pisos. which is like less than 40 bucks. and they're actually pretty nice. oh and we'll have to figure out what the plan is for skyping on christmas. guess we've still got a while. hope you guys are excited to see my pale sweaty face! ha it's hard to get tan in my area with all the crazy pollution.

well I dunno know what else. but yeah hope you guys are all doing well. I'm still praying about yal err' night. make sure you send me some of the bois blogs since I can't email them.

love you all!

Elder Molnar and Elder Staples - companions

First Photos from the Mission Field

My mission companion, Elder Staples. Dinner with Sister Garcia

Investigators

First Session in the Manila MTC

Sister Garcia

Sunset in the Philippines!

My bed - Elder Mauzy was one of my teachers in the MTC

After surgery.  I'm on the mend.

Welcome to the Philippines! (First day at the mission home)

10/15

Yeah that's so nuts about the whole mission thing. Ha Demi's gettin ready to go? Wait that's way sick, ha of course Brandon would go to the south. Let me know where Landon C goes and Ben should be getting his call soon too. Dang that's so crazy.

Yeah conference was pretty dope as. I heard about the age change last week and was so stoked to watch it. Too bad we have to wait a week after you guys to see it though, but it was way sick. Hollands talk was amazing. Yeah ha I felt like he was speaking to me the whole time. I loved the part about what it really means when you raise your hand to the square at baptisms. Also Uchtdorf had a sick talk too about how we need to not focus on the finish line and enjoy the journey. That one really hit home for me with being out here and all. crazy, I'm already and 1/8th of the way done with my mish. but yeah it was funny,seems like only six months ago i was using conference as a time to catch up on sleep and now i was actually way stoked to watch it.

So my favorite things from the week. An investigator told me I look like David Archuleta and I guess he came to the Pinas one time so they all love him here. So when all the kids on the street ask my name, I tell them I'm David Archuleta and they freak out. hahah. Our investigator Sister Danica is getting married and baptized on the 29th so i'm way stoked for that. it'll be my first baptism. she's 21 and has a little 2 year old girl, Yen Yen, and hopefully her fiance Jerry will be able to baptize her. He's less active so hopefully it'll all work out and be good for their family.

Hmm least favorite thing this week. So last week we started talking to some people on the streets and my companion started talking to these two older ladies and this guy singled me out and started talking to me. I tried sharing with him why I'm here and about Jesus Christ, but he was a little too preoccupied with "falling in love" and with my nose. Gotta love all the gays here. yeah, I thought nose jokes back home were bad. EVERYONE comments on my nose here. haha ah the life of being a greek in asia where they dont have noses.

Ha well that's all for now. I'll send some pictures too. keep me updated on everyones mission calls and wish landon good luck in the mtc for me and tell brandon congrats for me too. Oh and happy birthday dad. I sent a letter a while ago but I'm not sure if you've gotten it yet.

-Elder Molnar

Whasss Goooood?!!

Well it's only been a couple days so not too much this week. Plus the weeks are starting to blend together so it's hard to think of what's been going on. Hope conference was good. We're watching it at our stake center this weekend. 

Yeah I bought a flash drive so i can copy pictures before I try to send some home so I won't loose any. I'll send pictures home next week for sure. aight?

Hmm.. what're some of the highlights this week?... My companion and I are working hard so we can get some baptisms goin. We've got 8 investigators with bap dates coming up so should be good! The whole marriage ish in the Pinas is killin us though. You have to wait forever for paperwork and everything so a lot of our investigators are just waiting on that. We've been teaching the Calugas family a lot lately. 3 times a week. They're seriously the golden family everyone wants. I'm excited to have my first family baptism soon.

Today was way sick. We went bowling just barely. Everything here is super ghetto, but the malls and stuff are way nice. nicer than utah. But I felt right at home today. At the bowling ally they were playing DragonBall Z on the TV's and playing american music, LMFAO and stuff. Ha and people say you can't do stuff on missions. Plus karaoke is huge here. Our neighbors have allnighter parties a lot so I hear Call Me Maybe and everything soooo much. ha love it.

It's sick here. You feel like a celebrity walking down the streets. Everyone, without fail, everyone says "Hey Joe",  "Whass your name" or "Ano height mo"(what's your height) or they just sing the song Call Me Maybe to you. Yeah whoever said the Philippines would be a humbling experienced... yeah that's a lie. Ha I'll probably get even more cocky from all the attention I get here. I finally got proposed to the other day. Some girls were following us around the other day and one for me asked me to write her and marry her. Whelp, bought time. I mean I've been here for almost 3 weeks now. haha

Oh something weird. My companion and I were giving a couple blessings to this less active family and I gave one to this guy. When I was giving the blessing, he passed out and then woke up all sweaty and stuff when I said amen. Either it was really powerful or I'm just super boring when I talk.

Well everythings going good. Still don't really understand anyone. Even if they speak English. It all sounds the same here. But it's gettin better.. Fast Sunday was yesterday and I was dying while we were walking around at like 6 pm on an empty stomach. Then we had 3 different dinners with different families after that and I was so full. Guess that's what I get for complaining. Some of the food is way good here. Just rice with different toppings called ulams. Uh although spaghetti here kills me. It's just tomato sauce with hot dogs for the meat.

Eh well that's all for now.

Love ya guys!!

2nd Week in the Pinas!

Sheesh, so many emails mom. Thanks for the love but I don't have time to read all them and everything very thoroughly. You'll have to start writing letters and when you do dear elders, they're supposed to print them out and give them to me.

Yeah, don't worry about sending me packages, it's like 50 bucks. I already take like 10 pills a day so don't worry about probiotics. They give us stuff here, and actually it's kinda nice not using scratchy toilet paper. I'll have to get a water sprayer to use when I get home. But, to send letters you just throw an international stamp on it and it's good. Just takes a week or two. I sent you guys a letter and a little happy birthday note for Dad, so that'll be there somewhat soon. Oh, and yeah, so we're not supposed to email anyone but family, so if anyone asks, just have them write me a normal letter or dear elder. Thanks! also you should send me updates from the bois from their blogs and stuff. I started writing Taylor and them, but I guess I can't anymore. Oh, and I'll send some pictures next Monday!

K, sooo let's see. The Pinas are so crazy. So last week kinda sucked. Got my toe "fixed", there were three of us who had to go. They just took us to the ER, stabbed our toes with some needles, ripped off our toenails and were good to go! haha Quite the party. Yeah, so I was stuck at our apartment for like 4 days 'cause you can't really wear shoes and walk around right away. Lots of just chillin' and studying. umm Elder Neilson, our Area President, came and held a mission conference. Pretty much just spoke with us and interviewed like half the mission.

I talked about some of our investigators in the letter I sent home. But yeah, it's been way sick.  We spend most the day teaching different investigators and less actives. We have a couple baptism dates coming up this month. Our Zone is going to try to have a Zone Baptism on the 27th. Kinda like a pot luck where each companionship brings someone to get baptized, haha. We need to get our wards stoked about missionary work. They're strugglin'. But yeah, we have a new referral family, the Calugas, that we've taught twice now. They're amazing. Seriously the dream investigators everyone wants. They keep all their commitments, already went to church once before we even taught them, committed them to baptism the first lesson, etc. So fun. It's crazy how happy they are. The four of them live under a little patio about 8 sq feet and the other half is just a dirt ground, and their roof is just some tarps and scraps of metal. Crazy how poor it is here. and I'm actually in one of the nicer areas. I'll send some pictures soon.

Oh, today was sick though. We had our first temple sesh at the Manila Temple today. So yeah, that's why our p-day is today (Wednesday). Not the nicest temple, but hey it's the Philippines, can't complain. I bought a basketball today so i can start ballin' it up with all the Pinas. We have a ghetto little basketball quart by our house so i'm pretty stoked. Hmm what else? There's soooo much i could talk about. I've been good about writing in my journal so you'll hear all the details in a few months. Oh, I tried another Philippino classic though. it's called Dinuguan. All it is, is blood they mix with vinegar and stuff and put meat in it. kinda like a soup of blood. that was... interesting. it's not too bad. Salty, but then you realize you're eating blood. Yeah..

Hmm.. yeah i dunno what else. I'll send some pictures on Monday and so just send me some. The language is good. Still don't understand anyone, but I've gotten good at nodding my head and laughing at the jokes I don't understand. Haha. Uhh yeah. Hope you're all doing well. Pray for my investigators. I'm doing great. I'm loving it here more everyday.

Love ya guys!!

Elder Molnar

1st Week in the Pinas!

Ha... well...I'm in the Philippines. It's so crazy here. Yeah today's P-day, well Monday cause I think it's still Sunday for you guys. Oh, and this key board sucks, so sorry for the bad punctuation. Anyways, let me tell you some highlights so far and some things I've learned about the Pinas.

So, our flight was good. During our layover in Hong Kong, Elder Leonard and I went to try and find the craziest thing to eat. We ended up ordering a bowl of "assorted meats and organs congee". Yeah, I don't know how we didn't throw up. There were these weird lookin tubes in there and we joked we were probably eating momma bear philopian tubes. Well jokes on us, 'cause we probably were.


So, we got to the mission home Wednesday after our 2 day plane ride, and just hung out for the first day, went sight seeing, and ate dinner since transfer day isn't till Thursday. We got here a day early. so let's see.. I've been here for only a few days but I'm definitely Philippino already. I'm showering with a bucket I use to poor cold water on myself, no more toilet paper, and I've already tried balut. Yeah...that was disgusting, but I ate the whole thing. You crack the egg open and drink abortion chicken juice, and the chick is huge, it's not even an egg, just a giant dead baby chick you eat. full of hair, beck and everything.

    
Driving here is crazy, mom, you would go crazy. The rules of the road are: the lines on the street are for decoration, the biggest car has the right of way, and if there's any space on the street you fill it in. Riding around jeepneys is definetly different than driving in the states. Oh, and one of the teachers from the MTC, Brother Mauzy, wrote his name on my bed so apparently I'm sleeping in one of my teachers old beds. Funny huh?

    
Well, I'm going to the hospital to get my toe taken care of today, so I gotta make this short. They have to take my toe nail off and cut off the infected tissue. Ha, oh well. But its cool here. The streets are like a petting zoo mixed with a red carpet. There's a billion stray dogs cats and chickens just walking around, and the kids all run up to us, ask us how tall we are and to play basketball with them and all that. Haha. I feel like a celebrity.

    
Teaching here is pretty sick. I can't really understand anyone but I've gotten good at nodding my head and smiling. A naked baby peed on his sister during our lesson the other day. My companion, Elder Staples and I challenged two people to baptism on Saturday. My companion even let me commit each of them, so hopefully I'll get to have my first baptism in a few weeks with Brother Mark and Sister Lovely, and I got to give my first blessing to one of our less active's daughter. So sick.

Not gonna lie, it's pretty tough here. I can't really understand many people and my area is super dirty and in the city, but it's getting better everyday. Oh, and I spoke in sacrament on Sunday in Tagalog. But yeah, it's amazing teaching real people and families and seeing the Gospel change their lives.

But yeah, I'll talk to you all soon. Hope everyone's doing well. I bought a little photo album at the MTC so you should send me some good pictures of the fam, of me and my friends and whatever. Oh, and the one of me doing that flip over the glacier. I miss looking at myself. Haha. Well, love you all. You can use this address to send letters, it'll just take a week or 2. 

Elder Peter Molnar

Quezon City North Mission

P.O. Box #1234

Quezon City Central Post Office

Nia Road, Diliman

1100 Quezon City

Philippines

Mahal ko kayo!

-Elder Peter Molnar

 (edited for punctuation and capitalization - sorry, I couldn't help myself - Mom) 

Letter from the Mission President's Wife

September 18, 2012

Dear Sister Molnar,

     There is something about a new pair of shoes, that just causes problems with some Elder's toes. ; )  We are very familiar with ingrown toenail problems here in the QCNM. I will look at it when he arrives and give him some advice. Some of our Elders can avoid having the nail removed with a little TLC and some time, but we have seen about 6 toenails removed since we arrived a year ago. Thankfully, we have access to a credible hospital that is located very near the mission home. They call in a "surgeon," who uses "clean" instruments and local anesthesia to remove the nail. They are given antibiotics and some Tylenol for pain.

      It is my hope that we can avoid the surgery if at all possible, as it does slow down their ability to work for a good week, but I wanted you to be aware that we do have other viable options available to us if it becomes necessary. Thank you for the "heads up."

     We are excited to meet Elder Molnar and the rest of his batch tomorrow morning. Because of flight scheduling, they will arrive at the mission home a day before our regular transfer meeting. We will feed them, and President Sperry will do his initial interview with them. At that time we will send them to stay with the Office Elders and Assistants for the night, as we will have our "exiting missionaries" staying here at the mission home for their last night in the mission. They will be transported back to the mission home for breakfast on Thursday, and at that time we will orient them, take pictures, and transport them to the chapel where we will hold our transfer meeting. It is here that they will be introduced to their trainers and meet many other missionaries serving here in the Quezon City North Mission.

      We will do our best to help him have a good experience as a full-time missionary for the Lord. We will appreciate any prayers you can offer in our behalf along with your newly arriving missionary

Sincerely,

Sister Sperry

Last Pix from the MTC

The Stash!

Hosting  Elder Jesse Faggioli

Elder Cope, Elder Molnar and Elder Faggioli

Elder Faggioli, Elder Kilpack and Elder Molnar

Elder Molnar, Elder Donaldson, Elder Cope and Elder Kilpack

Elder Faggioli - video

Hey all,
Elder Molnar's mom here.  I just added Elder Faggioli's blog link to this blog.  There is a video of him being greeted by Elder Molnar at the MTC.  You won't want to miss it.  Click on the link on the left side of this blog or try this....

http://elderfaggioli.blogspot.com/

Thanks!

Hey Mom!

Ready for the Philies!

Elder Molnar, Kyle and Ben

Elder Molnar and Ben Wright (investigator)

9/11

Yeah!! Last email you'll get from me while I'm at the MTC! It's gone by so fast. I feel like time stopped and it's still summer. Everyone says that but it's true. Crazy, I'm already done with a 1/12 of my mission.

K, let me answer your questions real quick Nanay (Mom). Yeah, I don't remember my travel plans exactly, but it's a 2 day trip. We leave the MTC Monday at 4:30 pm and fly to LA at 8:30. (I'll call you guys when I'm in LA if that's chill). Then around 2:00 am we fly out to Hong Kong which is like a 15 hour flight or something. Then have a 2 hour layover before we fly down to Manilla. So crazy, huh? Ah, I can't wait to go already.

Yeah, this week was pretty crazy. My companion got his knee surgery so we were at the hospital for like 7 hours last Tuesday. His surgery went great and he's doing good. We missed dinner at the MTC so the nurse was gonna let me call you guys to have you pick us up some food. Ha that would've been funny, but we just ended up having the MTC save us something for when we got back. I've missed a lot of class lately, gotta do my babysitting for my companion! But on the bright side, I've gotten freak good at doing wheelies in wheel chairs ha ha.

So Sunday, my district sang a musical number for sacrament. We did a Tagalog/little bit of English mashup of Abide with Me 'tis Eventide and I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go. Loved it.

Yeah, tell Jesse to watch for me tomorrow. I'll push everyone out of the way so I can host him. Ha can't wait! Oh, and for picking up the stuff I'm not taking with me to the Philies, I think they take it to Post Mart, but if you could call and find out that'd be great. This week is gonna be pretty busy so I'm not sure I'll be able to let you know in time.

Well, I was hoping to be fluent in Tagalog before I left, ha, oh well! I've actually learned a ton from being here and can pretty much say what I want. Although the Philies will be totally different with all the accents and everything.
Hmm let's see.. Some advice for everyone getting ready to come in.. Honestly just make the MTC fun. It's all about your attitude. Just remember why you're here. Take the work seriously, but don't take yourself seriously. And everyone says study Preach My Gospel like none other, but I think even more important than that is just studying hard and not wasting your time here. Do that, and the MTC will be so fun.
Here's a little spiritual message to leave you on. I know I've said stuff like this before, but it's been a reoccurring topic for me here at the MTC, and I'm sure there's a reason for that. First of all, read D&C 11:21. I've heard this scripture a million times but it's so much better now that I know how it better fits where I'm at right now. You can't just focus on planning lessons and teaching your investigators. You need to study the doctrine out. Read it, ponder it, pray about it. Once you have that strong testimony of the doctrine, that's when the spirit is able to speak through you to your investigators. The devotional speaker Sunday said something like, "We'll know better what needs to look for in our investigators if we're living the doctrines ourselves." Don't be a hypocrite. Do what you preach. More important than how or what you teach is who you are. So true.

Well, I love you all and pray for you all every night. Hope you're all doing great. Read D&C 31. Pay close attention to the verses that talk about families. This section has definitely helped comfort me in knowing you guys will be taken care of while I'm off on my two year vacation, modeling suits on the beach in the Philies.
I'll have to send some more pictures soon. I've got some good ones of me cutting my big bloody infected ingrown toe nail off, kinky banana suit/tall tee/handcuffs/pokeball pictures and me and Conner are gonna have a gay lil' funny photo shoot before I leave. Get stoked!

Mahal na mahal ko pamilya ko at mga kaibigan! (I loving love you all my family and friends)

-Elder Peter Nicholas Molnar

P.S. Tell Britt happy birthday for me. Hopefully she got my package I sent her.

Elder Peter Molnar, Elder Spencer Donaldson, Elder Conner Cope and Elder Curtis Killpack.

Maligayan Pasko sa Pilipinas!!

September is the start of Christmas in the Philies and lasts until the end of December so start celebrating now!!

Yeah, so things have still been a bit crazy lately. My companion's going in for surgery today so we had to get up at 4:00 to get laundry done and go to the temple and everything. I gave him a blessing last night and so hopefully all goes well. I'll get to go sit at the hospital in the waiting room for 6 hours again today. Getta see the outside world again! A couple of the sisters in my district have had strep throat and we've all been kinda sick lately. One of the sisters still doesn't even have her passport yet, etc. So yeah, lots of blessings going around. we just got done waking up all the missionaries in our zone. Haha! We have a huge wrench that's been passed down to the "tool" of the zone over the past couple years. So I went around with him, Elder Sorenson, and tapped the door of some of the kids in our zone and said, "Magandang umaga mga misyonero, it's Pday!" Ha so annoying. Especially at 4 am.

Well freak! 13 days left and I'm outta here!! we get our travel plans on Thursday. Can't wait. My districts hosting this week and I'm doing traffic control-ish, so if you stop by the MTC, look for the kid guiding the cars with a banana. Hopefully we'll get to host next week when Jesse comes in.

Sunday was fast Sunday so I bore my testimony in Tagalog for sacrament meeting. A bit rough, but t'was fun. Our districts singing for sacrament next week, but instead we're doing a mash-up on "Abide with Me 'Tis Eventide" and "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go, in Tagalog. Pretty dope.

We moved down to the bottom floor in our residence the other day so my companion wouldn't have to climb 4 flights of stairs to our room. New bunkmates, Elder Dreeson and Elder Burbank. Pretty cool kids.

Aight, yeah nothing really new, figures since every day's a Sunday here at the MTC. So yeah, I'll have plenty of time to write everyone back today via letters. So that's about all! Language is coming along and everything's going good. I'll see ya all in 97 weeks!

Mahal na mahal ko kayo ng pamilya ko!

-Elder Molnar

Ano ang mabuti sa barangay?! (What's good in the hood)

  

     Just 20 days left!! So crazy how fast it's gone by. It goes by a bit faster now, especially on Sundays cause i'm busy with my leadership meetings now.
     Well let's see what happened this week... My companion and I blessed the sacrament in Tagalog on Sunday and in two weeks my district is singing in sacrament and we're gonna do Joseph Smith's First Prayer in Tagalog but in the "Come Thou Fount" tune. Naks. Tuesday Neil L. Anderson of the Twelve came and spoke at our fireside. It's so amazing hearing from an apostle about missionary work now that it really applies to me more than ever. I gave my first blessing to a sister in my district who was sick. Oh yeah, Conner (Cope) and Spencer (Donaldson) are here now! I see Spencer ALL the time. So fun. And Elder Conbear lives just the floor under me, so I get to see him all the time too.
     For TRC wednesday (TRC is when people come volunteer to be taught by the missionaries) Kyle N. came so my teacher Brother Langer had me teach Kyle. haha it was so sick. You'll have to get Jesse to come with Kyle next time and I can teach them both.
     Well the past couple days have been interesting. My companion has had some knee problems in the past and his knee has been hurting again lately so we've been at the doctors a lot. I should've told you guys so everyone could come visit. I was at the orthopedic office down in Provo for like 6 hours yesterday in the waiting room. But yeah kinda sucks, he's getting ACL surgery next Tuesday and so he'll have to stay at the MTC a bit longer and won't get to fly out with us. Poor guy. It was so weird being outside the MTC for the first time though. It was fun being outside in my missionary clothes though cause everyone was talking to me about where I'm from, where I'm going and all that. Got my first little taste of doing missionary work with the outside world. I even brought a couple Restoration pamphlets just in case I'd be able to teach someone while I was in the waiting room. Oh well, next time.

     That really is about it. Oh last Thursday-ish, my teacher Brother Langer asked me to be his companion and help him do a demonstration of "how to begin teaching" to a sister in my district who role played as an investigator. We taught in front of my district and for a couple other teaches as well. It was pretty naks gettin' to help prepare a lesson with someone who has already been on a mission. Pretty rough having to do it all in Tagalog still, but it wasn't too bad. The language is starting to come a lot easier now too. It's still super rough, but I can at least say what I want for the most part. I have a hard time thinking of what I wanna say and then translating all in my head and saying it in Tagalog, especially since the grammer and sentence structure doesn't translate directly over. It's getting better though. If I have stuff written down in English I can say in Tagalog pretty well. Only 3 more weeks to get fluent! No biggie.

     Yeah hopefully you guys are getting all these emails. Just reply back to them real quick so I can make sure you're getting them all. Should be one from each week now. The emailing here's a pain in the butt sometimes. I wrote a bunch of letters yesterday and I'll do some more today and send them out.

     Keep writting and sending me stuff!! only a few days left of that now. I'll be looking forward to my tall tee ;)

Mahal na mahal ko kayo!!

-Elder Peter Nicholas Molnar

MTC Pix 2

A few comments from a personal letter to Mom:

     Honestly, it was only hard the first few weeks, just still being in Provo, basically home, but I couldn't leave.  Now it's just funny how I really could walk home and say "Whattup?" real quick, and no one would know.  Ha!  Pathetic.  Nah, I'm doing way good though.  Especially as the new DL.
     I'm not too worried about you guys. I pray for you all every night, but we're all in good hands, especially right now.

     Instead of getting you a lame card for your birthday, I decided to give you my notes from our devotional last night. Elder Neil L. Anderson spoke, and it was amazing.  So I figured, what better present, than seeing how God talks to the missionaries, and not only missionaries, but your son.  Remember:

"What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same."
Doctrine & Covenants 1:38

Welcoming Elder Kyle Cross

With Elder Trey Valdez

OHS Elders (I think - help me out here)

Sister Hadley and Sister Mower

Banana Saturdays

Elder Poe-Laulu

With Elder Mitchell and  Elder Moulton

With Elder Sam Grover

Toga Tuesday

OHS Missionaries

Study space and photo of the bois

First Lava Lava

Sister Baravilala