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!