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