Week 6: We made it sa Philipinas!

August 15, 2018

**Caution long email**

It has been a long couple of days of travels! We (about 56 missionaries) left the Provo MTC Monday at noon and only the people in the Cauayan Mission (19 of us) were taken in a bus to get dropped off at the tracks to ride them to the airport and the rest of the missionaries rode buses and were dropped off right in front of the airport. So our mission had an adventure moving all of our heavy luggage around just to get to the airport. One Elders bag totally exploded before we even got on the train and the worker who was driving us didnt think twice about it and took off his tie and wrapped it around his suit case to try to keep everything together!

We were all definately a sight to be seen traveling in the group that we were in. we had a some time at the SLC airport and of course the first thing that we all did was go and get real food! Most of us went and got Cafe Rio and oh man was it good! We then all got on our flight to LAX and man was that plane full of missionaries. me and an Elder sat next to an older gentleman who lives in california and it was fun to answer all his questions about why are there so many of us here! The scariest thing for me is that were not at the mtc anymore and this isnt practice, what we say to those who dont know about the gospel matters! We are the missionaries and we wear Jesus Christs name on our name tags and what i found easier to do than talking to people was to just smile and be happy! So we flew to LAX and oh my was it a lot to travel with so many missionaries and all of us only young adults and dont have much travel experience! It was a miracle that we made it here with not too trouble! At LAX we waited for another group of missionaries of about 20 i think and it was there that you could just see the masses of missionaries (expecially around the pay phones). After i was done talking to my family on the phone i went to go sit with the sisters i was with and they were talking to a Filipino and he was just so interested in what we were doing and at the end of it right after he was starting to walk away i remembered that i had a Mormon.org pass along card in my pocket and so when he looked back at us i waved him back over and i gave it to him and he was so excited and happy. i told him that he can go to this website to learn more about what we are doing and when i saw his reaction it was so priceless and i cant wait to share this gospel with more Filipinos! So we made it onto the plane and it was basically just row after row of missionaries and for me i was able to sleep most of the time! Before my mission i had only been on an airplane once and so this flight was something that i was not used to! Haha when i flushed the airplane toilet for the first time i jumped so high because i was expecting it to flush kind of like a camping trailer toilet and it didnt! After the 14 hour flight we were landing and looking out of the windows it was just so unreal that on one side it was just land and water and out the other side of the plane was a huge city with tons of buildings! All of the traveling i was basically on auto pilot and my goal was to just make it to the Philippines alive! and so when we got off the plane we finally realized that all the sisters feet were swollen! haha it was bad! We made it past customs pretty easily and it was there that we met with church representatives and we got all of our luggage and loaded them onto buses and the MTC president was there! The weather hasnt been as bad as i was thinking it would be! The drive to the MTC was definatley interesting, the traffic was crazy and we all thought it was a miracle that we didn't crash! We made it to the MTC and we are basically doubling the number of missionaries that are here! the food is great, its home cooked and every meal has rice! So we arrived to the Philippines on wednesday morning and they told let us go to bed at 7pm. wow it was so hard to not fall asleep all day! wednesday night we got to meet our mission president, President Hyatt, because he was here to get dental work done, and so we got to sit and talk with him for about 45 mins and it was so cool to hear from him! the rooms that were staying in are alot nicer than provos and the campus here is so small compared to provos! 

We just met out teachers today (Thursday, august 16, 10am) and we have class this morning and then we get to go to the temple after lunch and then we have p-day for the rest of the day!

I am so excited to be here and i already love the people so much! 

Once we got here we were all assigned new companions so that our district was only those missionaries going to the same mission. so my new companions are Sister Despain (from oregon) and Sister Randall (from saratoga springs, utah)! They're great and i knew them before coming at the Provo MTC because they were the only other sisters going to my mission. so our district has 19 missionaries, 3 sisters and 16 elders. 

Its so crazy that we can already understand some of what everyone here is speaking, but when i try to speak i feel like i know nothing! it'll take time, but im so excited and ready to learn this language from natives! 

I love this gospel and the opportunity i have to teach it to the people in the Philippines! Im safe and im doing great, and i hope that i wont melt here with the heat!

I love you all!

-Sister Thayn

A lady at the SLC airport took a picture of us all and my companions mom sent us the picture!