Please Read

This was Zach's favorite conference talk....he would like everyone to read it and think about it. :)

Protect the Children

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/protect-the-children?lang=eng

Week 4 in!!

hey everyone i finnally got to watch general confrence it was really good to listen to the apostles and the 70 one of the things that is a great talk was by the one by dallin h oaks his main focus was on the children and how we need to protect them and they should have both parents for the raising the children he talked about a few stats about kids over 40%  of children are born by single mothers and the birthrate has been the lowest in over 25 years i think it was 41 million abortions and how we should protect the children from physical and emotional and spirtual abuse it really got to me cause my life has been rough because of the divroce of my parents and it will always be a problem so when i get back and get married its going to be 1 marriage and i do not want any other child to go through that 

well this week in the philippines well the biggest thing that happend this week was Genral Conference well i also did a companion exchange its where i switch my companion for a day so we i switched with this American and it was a really good experience i learned a little bit of tagalog from him and he said that i taught him a lot i don't know how i can im still a Greene out here but he liked how simple i would teach and how he wants to be simple just cause you can say things complex doesnt mean you should thats what he said he learned 

also a little funny story so i was waiting on a jeepney to fill up in it hast to be filled up before it can go so anyway while i was sitting there a street vendor she came up and she asked me in english hello sir would you like to buy something then i replied hindi po means no thanks then the vendor said wow he knows implying i know a lot of tagalog it was pretty funny i said 2 words and she was astonished by one word

during my exchange apperently they said they were suprised that my tagalog was really good for only being here for 3 weeks they were amazed i dont know if they were really saying that elder hyatt told me that they said that 

well this next week i am going to be in manila for a little bit i ll be there and its for a little  help with some things dont worry its not nothing physically wrong with me so it will be a good experince 

sorry this one is so short but i love all you guys and it sounds like i was right on my guess for the boy or girl thing and also lilly is a little monkey how haha thats funny how is everyone else doing oh and the age change for missionary i think it wont change much for the young men but the woman missionarys i think it will grow emmenctly but i will all talk to you next week

Week 3!!!

Hey everyone how is everyone doing on the other side of the wall well a lot has happend since i have wrote all of you last so where to start
well i am still not understanding this language but everyone is assuring me that i will get it soon and that it will make sense so hopefully i will get this language cause it is sure is boring sometimes cause i dont know what is going on when we are talking to the members my companion is telling me that give it time when things get hard and our mission president is a awesome guy he told me that efforts are not failures he compared it too when nephi went to go get the plates how he tried several times before he was able to get the plates from the house of laban but each try was not a failure or just like thomas eddison or however you spell his name it took him 10,000 trys till he made the light bulb so i just got to keep trying so anyway

so i am in the town of san manuel there is not a lot there but we have many rice fields and houses other than that really nothing for transportation we have to ride on trikes a motorcycle with a little cab attached to the side in that states that would be against the mission rules here its our means of transportation ocassionaly we will find a jeepney in san manuel but we ussually wont find one https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=jeepney&hl=fil&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=82lyUNSRLen4mAWh-oCIBg&sqi=2&ved=0CCwQsAQ&biw=1040&bih=636

http://www.google.com.ph/imgres?num=10&hl=fil&biw=1040&bih=636&tbm=isch&tbnid=lZyfgBJIcPRpoM:&imgrefurl=http://thebumpyjourneyoflife.blogspot.com/2010/09/public-utility-drivers-of-philippines.html&docid=K8sn6jJb1ubpnM&imgurl=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-NIZHWtQkw4/TIuzkFbYUcI/AAAAAAAAAWU/jjLXlJRtVIY/s1600/trike.jpg&w=500&h=303&ei=Z2pyULSLIs_rmAX784G4Bg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=81&vpy=160&dur=214&hovh=175&hovw=289&tx=197&ty=77&sig=100650743066050544747&sqi=2&page=1&tbnh=103&tbnw=170&start=0&ndsp=13&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:64 trike

there is a website with pictures of jeepneys there fun little things to ride and you fit around 22 to 24 people inside that if you can believe and trikes is the means of transport haha so anyway you know how we get around here in the phillippines

so this last week so we have had some success we have 2 investigators with IBD or they have a baptism way to go it has to be all the spirit cause i know that my tagalog is bad so it cant be me but i am still excited though we also have less actives coming back to church and there is a lot of less actives here in the Philippines i am not sure how many there is more less active then active members here in the Philippines there is a lot of rescue effort here but its all a rescue effort if you think about it so anyway what else has happened here well we have this one investigator his name is brother michael and he is very shy his whole family is a member but he is not but he reminds me of myself in some ways so i think with enough persistence he will come around

Plus i think i am loosing that weight i gained in the mtc i am sweating all the time and it is the cool time of the philippines too and i am exercising every morning with is a challange some days than others and maybe i ll come home with a six pack haha proably not but who knows haha so what else has happened i also have learned how to say the word for goat is kambing and some previous elder was taught the word for goat was pwete means ass like a donkey so his trainer laughed everytime he herd him say that

all the philipiono kids are saying to me in english Whats your name they always are asking me that it is pretty funny they sure do love americans here in the philippines and everyone here is so nice even though they have so little like the size of an average home here in the Phillippines is about the size of dads garage so we are definalty blessed here plus all the kids here dont always have diapers or cloths so we are a country with a lot of blessings that is for sure
we have not been able to watch conference we watch it this weekend i am excited for that
no body figured out my riddle yet from my last letter so i will give it again
what is something every bathroom should have but we dont have in our appartment the hints are my left hand is not clean and water is our substitute
haha if you figure it out props to you haha
Makayla so we have a shower in our appartment but we do not have any hot water though and we dont a washer our dryer either

Attention everyone i want to see some letters use dear elder what happend you have been slacking on that end i would really love it if i got some dear elders my info is
Elder ward phi bag urdenta zone so if you can i would really like to see it if possible

Love you all hope to hear from all of you soon

Week 2 in the Pines!

Hey everyone how is everyone doing im am doing good for the most part i thought i knew some Tagalog but apparently i dont cause every time someone speaks i cant really pick it up its really annoying but anyway so this week is my 2 week here in the Philippines so lets see what has happened so far
well first off since last i wrote my companion name is elder dela cruz  he is a phillipino he is from sebu and he is the district leader haha which really doesn't mean to much he never pulls that card of leader but he kind of decides what we are doing which he is the sr companion so i ll trust him 

so this week well i am eating plenty of rice a lot a lot of rice its part of the diet here so we have a few investigators here not to many i main focus here is to get less active members to come back to to church so we don't really get to teach new investigators but we have a few so they are really going well we had 3 of our investigators come to church with us this Sunday which was pretty good so the mission here is tough sometimes mainly because i don't understand the language yet sometimes i wonder why i was sent here but i got to stop having negative thoughts and try to press forward so here is an average day for elder ward 

First i wake up at 630 am then exercise or at least try to then after that i have breakfast at 730 then at 800 i have personal study where i take an hour for my self and study the scriptures and preach my gospel and some me time then after that its about 900 then we have companion ship study which were we share what we learned from personal study sing a hymn then we pray then we read out of the white handbook and learn the rules the rules are there for our protection then we study together then at 10 its language study where i try to understand the language hopefully one day i will understand it then 1230 we have lunch which is something with rice in it go figure haha then after lunch we head out around 2 and go to our appointments and preach by the way and tract and fun stuff till 900 we head home have our daily planning for the next day i write in my journal and get ready for bed that's an average day for me in the Philippines   so then that's what i ll do on a day to day bases 

what else hmm well the members here are really nice always coming with us to help us teach its a good thing too or it would be Elder Dela Cruz teaching all the time and they also feed us too the people amaze me here how small there homes are and how much poverty they have here and they are such a happy people here i dont fully understand why yet maybe when they see a white American they like to laugh at him who knows 

so another fun fact of the Philippines is that it is rainy season right now and that means it can rain at any time no matter how clear the sky may appear earlier in the day and another thing in the Philippines is how do you flush a toilet here well you have to fill the bowl with water thats right folks now working flushing here and another thing is ask makayla this she will tell you in our apartment there is water for EVERYTHING she should be able to tell you what that means hint wala something that every bathroom has in the states  and your left hand is not always clean haha hopefully that was enough information 
so then well i am going to be honest here for a second so one day after i was done with the CR i filled up the bucket of water and when i bent over to pick up the bucket my notepad with a lot of my notes in it fell into the bucket of water and that was a last straw and i broke down in tears because i am not getting this language down like how i would like too and its really hard to be here its just so different here makayla and dan probably went through this too not knowing what to do and what is going and it is frustrating not knowing what is going on and it made me wonder why i was sent to such a difficult place for me i am on the other end of the world not speaking the language and it is really hard here sometimes cause i really dont have anyone to talk to about this cause my companion hasnt really had to struggle with the language or going to a knew place so i went to my knees and asked for help we all could use a good cry every once in awhile so hopefully it comes soon i dont want to let down everyone and the lord cause i cant understand what is going on so hopefully the language will come soon
so i know sa pamagitan ng pagbayad-sala ni jesuscristo i can do this i ask for your prayers or suggestions if you have any
so MaKayla i have been keeping up in writing in that journal you gave me and the pages are filling up so soon i will need to buy a new one the camera you gave me for some reason the lense wont close so i think i ll have to buy a new one so anyway i ll be sure to send a couple of pictures 

Mahal po tayo  
PS i am in san manuel in the urdenta zone 


*CR means comfort room which what they say for bathroom there.  And Zach is referring to the fact that they don't have toilet paper there and that some people will use their hand to wipe themselves.  Yes, gross to us but totally normal in their part of the world for those that cannot afford toilet paper.  

He made it!!!

Kumusta po kayo lahat hello everyone made it here in the Phillippines okay what long flights we had to get here so first after i get done saying hello and goodbye to everyone (sorry i didnt call grandma and grandpa i didn't have my address book to get there numbers) so i hung out with sio for a little while then i get on the plane so then i get on there so then i got to sit by sister walker and this guy we didnt know me and sister walker sat by each other the whole way there too the Phillippines so anyway 
so this guy i was sitting next to asked me a question or two about who i was and what i was doing and asked if i was mormon and i replied i am then i told him i ll be gone for 2 years away from my family preaching the gospel then we talk some more about our church i asked him what his religious beliefs were he said he is catholic and a devoted one at that he proceeded to tell me his children had friends who are mormon and really likes our culture and how we have high standards and said in this world were morals are almost non existent he really likes how we conduct our selves then he asked us some other standards we have then i told him about how we wait till we are married till we have sexual relations and about the word of wisdom how joseph smith received revelation about that way before we were able to know how tea tobacco would effect our bodys cool thing right then he asked has my other family member served missions i told them about makayla and logan how they served missions and how they loved it when i talked more i told him about how god is our loving heavenly father and that he is our father and he loves us so much he gave us more prophets i told him it makes more sense that god would give us more prophets he gave prophets such as adam noah moses jesus christ there has been many prophets on the earth so i told him it makes more sense to me that he would give us another one and guides us today then i tell him about how we have 
the plan of salvation told him we lived with our father in heaven then how we come to this earth to receive bodys and we have a veil so we dont remember so we can make our own choices cause we have free will or agency then i told him about the point of being here is to get ready to meet god and the purpose of our temples i asked him if he is married he said he was happly for 20 plus years and i told him in our temples he would be able to be sealed to his wife for all time and eternity i told him that his whole family could be sealed to him then i continue to tell him after we die we either got to spirit prison or paradise and told him that those who were not following the commandments and the rules of the world such as obeying laws go to paradise then those who break all the rules and wicked go to spirit prison where they have a chance to hear the gospel and change in that place then i told him about how we are then resurrected in our perfected bodys i also told him anyone with any illness or physical problems would be cured then i told him we are judged for our lives and sent to 3 diffrent heavens or kingdoms then i told him the meaning of the 3 different heavens then he asked me what if my wife was unfaithful to me he asked me that a few times through the time i was explaining the plan of salvation i told him she had a chance to change if she did and if your both living the gospel she most likely wont cheat on you then he asked what if she is unfaithful and i am faithful then i told him he would be able to visit her if he wanted but she couldn't visit him in the highest kingdom 
then we talked some more and told him we believe in a trinity that god jesus christ and the holy ghost is 3 sepret beings
He really enjoyed listing to me and i just talked to him for the last 15 minutes until we landed he told me to vote for romney haha it was pretty funny and encouraged everyone to vote for him got off the plane and we went our seperet ways and then sister walker kind of bragged about how good i was at teaching and everyone was asking me about it she said she was proud of me haha 

then when we got off the plane at lax elder browns mom directed us around talk about an confusing airport so we get to the right gate and get on the plane from LAX to HK then were on that plane ride for 15 hours i think slept for 8 and awake the rest then me and sister walker talked for most the flight we became close friends then man next to me asked me who i was and what i was doing told him about our church and we only talked for 10 minuets but it was still good then we got of the plane and straight to the gate to the plane to manila then we get there and already loading we get on the plane and start flying me and sister walker flew by each other again BTW by the way i got the middle seat every time go figure huh 
the guy next to me asked about me and what i was doing in the Phillippines told him about the plan of salvation and about the book of mormon read som scriptures to him and sister walker was egerly listing to my conversation with this phillipino it was cool to teach him too then we get off the plane and we get on a bus for 6 to 8 hours to baguio then we get there in urdeneta and meet the AP assistent to the president and met the mission president and his wife they are really cool it was nice to finally get there then we have a quick dinner then we go to the big house for the elders and we go to sleep then the next day we have a meeting with the mission president i really like him he said we are similar and asked me if i thought my weaknesses were a bad thing and i said yes and then he told me of a scripture in ether 12:27 then we ended our meeting 

sorry i am out of time but i will tell you more next week love you all thanks for reading my exciting life right more next week

Last email from the states!

hey everyone i get to get out one more email before i get out of here its our last saturday here at the mtc and were off to the Philippines in 2 days can you believe it i sure cant haha i am so excited and i just cant hide it haha music i cant remember a lot of things of the outside world, So we have not a lot happen here at the MTC its pretty dry here sometimes but we had in field oratiation basically its getting us ready to go out the field all those english speakers it was so much easy to teach now that we didnt have the language barrier its so much fun plus our guro he gave us a Talk he has being talking about for weeks he told us we will be like rockstars out there and just told us its not about you focus on the people which is a great message
what else has happened well we as a district took photos with our guro i dont have my camera on me so you might not see them for a little bit as you saw my travel plans so we get to leave soon i cant wait it will be so much fun not the plane ride mainly because its such a long flight then when i get there, there probably will be some culture shock as well its going to be so crazy but i know i will love it cause i am going to an excotic country i am trying to debate wether or not to get a phone card but i probably will well who doesnt want to talk to me hopefully i remember everyones number haha if am that smart
well it is offical i have gained some weight here at the mtc i swear they put some crazy fattenting agents in this food pero but its ok because i will be sweating 24 7 i ll loose that weight and then some its will be ok
plus i also get to eat all this food everyone is been sending me so hopefully i cant fit all the wheight in my bags plus whats stupid is they only allow 15 pounds for my carry on how dumb is that thats just unamerican is what that is haha oh well what the challange is finding cool things in the pines
Sorry everyone this one is short but when i get to the pines keetakeets mahal kita haha love everyone

FLIGHT PLANS!!!

Kumsta po tayo how has everyone been doing i hope everything is going pretty well how was great grandmas birthday party i hope she had fun how is she doing by the way i hope she is doing pretty good and no problems so i went and had a great week like usual we all had some fun this week i cant believe that my mtc experiance will be over soon i ve been here for 8 weeks start of my 9 and soon i will be in the phillippines is going to be so exciting and shock all at the same time its so crazy how fast time goes by when your here your always doing something so the time will fly by all day one day it maybe felt like an hour for my long days here the only time i get to myself is when i sleep for 8 hours or try too at least my body just doesnt like to sleep
what else happened so last week for our speaker was this brother from the 70 and he is german so is his wife it was a lot of fun  to listen to his wife her English was pretty bad but she made us laugh and brought such a sweet spirit even though i wont be an expert at the language of tagalog when i get of the plane what is important if i can bear testimony of what i know thats all thats going to matter one of the things she said was were all on the same sheet of music , what i think she was trying to say was were are all on the same page
it was really nice to know that the language wont matter but what will matter is how the spirit can teach them and that proved it right there

another thing was we as a discrict had a little group insite which was really cool i learned so much from everyone in our district we have elder swenson whos pretty familar with a lot of things then elder boyd he is pretty good at the language of tagalog then we have sister shuemman who is cool then we have sister walker who basically is a native speaker and wont admit it then elder morgan he knows so many facts about the most random things then elder kuavakua he is tonggan hes pretty chill but he cant leave with us because his acl and mcl is torn pretty bad the docters dont even know how he is walking then we have elder hansen but i call him elder handsome haha he is the coolest person i think in the district just a really nice elder and he plays pretty good golf he said his best games was a 67 which is pretty good i hear then its elder leonard he is a bit of a drama king sometimes and cool sometimes and a big flirt sometimes then theirs my kasama compaionan he s cool and theres me not to important (jokelang)
So the big NEWS is here FLIGHT PLANS
so we leave the mtc at 430pm our flight to lax is at 822 pm we leave 17 sep 2012 flight number 1211 incase you want to know the important one
from lax we arrive there at 925pm then i departure from LAX is at 130 am then we say goodbye to our district we separate we arrive in hongkong at 715 am leave at 805 am then to the pines from there and arrive at 955 am
LV slc 822pm 1211
AR LAX 925pm LV LAX130 am 881
AR HK 715 am LV HK 805am
AR manila 955 am
flight numbers 1211,881,907,
6 more days and i am off o the PHILLIPPINES  excited ako so next letter is going to be for the field of the pines love you all

Pictures from the MTC

 

 

Zach's 1st district at the MTC

 

Enjoying his MTC food!

 

 

 

Temple Trip...

 

Zach's 1st companion Elder Contreras

 

Week 7!!!

kumusta po kayo everyone has it going its going good here at the mtc like ussuall i hear 2 people  are having birthdays happy birthday to both of you david and great grandma so this week we have been doing some crazy things
well to start lets sse we got 3 new districts so we are no longer the newbies here at the mtc plus when your here for 7 weeks and start of my 8th i dont think we are new at this mtc thing i am so excited we get our travel plans sometime this week soon we get to venture out to the field and start living like a phillippino it will be a blast i feel so cooked up here but i know when i get out there it will go by so fast just like my past few weeks i have been here i am so excited that i get a chance to go there and meet new people and give them the chance to hear about the church i cant believe that i get to go too a place like the pines  it will one of the best things  to happen to me yet in my life im excite so excited
Now
for some tagalog makakadamdam po ang pagmahal ng mga tao sa phillippines  tayo ang mga ankak ninya pwede po ba kayong panalagin
something for dan and makayla to have fun with that
lets see oh tomorrow we get to host tomorrow for the new missionarys with there dork dots haha it will be fun to help them and show around the mtc letting them how it goes in the mtc like i was in the mtc i didnt get to choose my bed cause i got there last thats what i get for eating all that food at tucanos of all that masarap pagkain delicious food anyway whats life like in Babylon its kind of weird not to know whats going on in the outside world whats gregg up to or samantha i hope all is well with them how s was liberties babtism i havent herd much about them so nothing too crazy happened here
i hope all of you got the letters i sent out i am a bit of a slacker when it comes to writing letters but i am trying to be better at that sorry that it takes me so long hmmm lets see well sorry this letter doesnt have alot of information in it this week was kind of boring here

i do have one more story so this morning we had temple breakfast so i had 3 sausage then a waffle a omlet and hashbrowns and biscutes and gravy the food is so goo at the temple its so work it haha i m  going to get fat oh well when the food is good
i want to thank everyone for sending me letters and all the care packages and for all the support and prayers its sometimes hard here but theres experiences help you grow for sure i love it and hope that everyone gets a chance to do the same its definitely the best choice if you are thinking of going or not so Go if your wondering if your should or not well i am out of time i will send some pictures not as good as issiah but there ok long haha tagalog  ingat po

Mga Pamilya

Mga Pamilya all my family i love all of you out there who takes the time to either dear elder or write me a letter i really do appreciate every single one i get i get so excited well again thank you
well this week here at the mtc we all had some good times the language seems  to get more easy by the day here with awesome teachers like brother mofat and brother nordtram he has been here for almost 4 years and is friends with alaina makaylas old kasama anyway what else we got to usher for the devtional last week and guess who came to the devotional that night it just so happened to be a genral authority how blessed are we to usher that night and get those great seats by the apostle i was so excited to see his name he talked a lot of president monsons famous quotes he has one of them i wont forget is NEVER never never ignore the prompting of the holy ghost some of you may know that president monson was a bishop at the age of 22 anyway so when he was a bishop he was in a ward council right before the meeting he herd of a less active memeber was in the hospital and so he made plans to go visit him that night so he was in the middle of the meeting he was prompted to leave the meeting but he didnt want to be rude so he waited till the meeting was over raced over to the hospital ran up the stairs and just as he found the room the nurse just put a blanket over the mans face and the nurse asked Are you Bishop monson he answerd yes and the nurse said he was calling out for you before he died and from that day he learned never ever ignore a prompting the holy ghost prompts us for a reason and we need to follow him
last sunday we had a speaker come talk to us he was more like a comedian then anything anyway his main message was Dont Be Stupid to remember who we are and who we represent and the rules are there for a reason he told of a story about these missionarys who after a zone conference decide to play basketball then they got talking about bombs of all things and after much talk they decited to make some bombs just cause they could and then they lit one off in the road woke the the police captian up and the cops showed up right away then they lied that it wasnt them and then they decited to tell the Truth the cops then went into the house with more bombs inside with a map with pins on it those elders spent the night in jail
another set of elders got sent home and closed an entire mission for sitting on a buddah statue because they did not respect their culture so dont be stupid we were told
hmmm what else interesting happened today well our older district leaves today and they ll be missed and they had some fun for sure haha oh the stuff they do
Makayla how s little issiah doing i hope he is getting more amazing by the day he sure is the cutest baby boy i know for sure how was your 2 year anniversary with luis and issiah i hope you had fun here i m trapped and the outside world is someone playing music in there car stopped at the light kind of sad huh and how s everyone else doing i hope there all doing good
if you can can you see if sio and arinda could send some pictures too how far does issiah crawl no and how s little lilly i hear she know s alot more words now
well in close i like to thank every one again for sending me letters and emails and the dear elders through the mail they really do help when i have a bad day here the mtc is great i wish we could stay here for a little while longer then theres some days where i m like get me out of this place its like tourture now but i know it will all pay off i love going to the temple its so great too bad baguio doesnt have one they are starting to build one but wont  be close of being finished but my work is for the living right now i would ask that everyone who wants to just find an hour of personal time for the scripters i promise it will sure help
Mahal Kita Kayo

Week 5!!!

Kumusta po kayo everyone ako asteg my self haha this week was pretty good are district is getting better and better i dont think i have ever metioned them before my bad first we have sister shuchman she s pretty cool from right here in utah close to manti no mans land out there then we have Sister walker everyone calls her mama walker cause sometimes she acts like our moms its funny the theres me of course the coolest one then my kasama elder contreas something like that he s a mexican sometimes he says things wierd like when he says the book of morom he says Mormon like a vampire dragging out the O's its pretty funny then we have elder swenson from califorina he s pretty chill elder and smart too and he has moments where he makes everyone laugh and is dramatic then we have elder boyd from sandy utah he is our new district leader its funny he was picked just wouldnt  be the guy you would suspect oh well he s in our residence just like elder swenson its a good bunch for our room then we have elder morgan he s a very serious guy almost all of the time and takes things seriously to much sometimes then we have elder kauvaka he s a tongan represent for sio haha he s a really funny elder and someone you can count on then we have elder hasnsen but we call him elder handsome haha he s a quit most the time but he is halliors with his facial expressions he reminds me of logan a bit then we have elder lenord he s the class clown always trying to get the laugh and he and sister shuaman are like the best of friends in the mtc we make jokes about how there going to get married haha oh who knows
What is going on? with issiah bug he s crawling with out me and i hear he is growing up to fast that story of issiah laughing himself to sleep is just simply asteg asteg asteg (awesome) i miss that litte guy he s so cute i would appreciate some pictures of the all the family it would be nice to have to bad i cant get videos on these computers they just find every way for us not to see the outside world but i had a dream sometime last week Makayla put on her old name tag and snuk into the mtc and found me and we had lunch it was a asteg dream i didnt want to end cause me and makayla got to spend sometime together its was pretty awesome maybe it was a dream of prophecy who knows haha
i read in one of the letters that lilly still kind of remembers me thats crazy that she says she misses me even know that she was such a mama and daddys girl haha and she has quite the vocabulary now thats pretty cool thanks for the blessing i have been reading that thing almost all of the time know i cant get enough of it its like reading frome the book of mormon thats one of my favorite things to do here at the mtc we as a district read out of the book of mormon its pretty awesome we share insites to what we had read last night we read about the stripling warriors momma boys haha but anyway the way they were able to be so blessed and have the miracles was with the exactness and i read that day in D:C 133 2-6 it was such a great scripture it talks about leaving  babaloyon behind and while we read the veres about how the anti niephtes and lehits i cant spell today how the gave up their weapons of rebbelion interesting word but when we read that verse the holy ghost hit me in the head and told me to share that scripture in DC:133 2-6 it was crazy i have never felt such a strong promteming from the holy ghost it was asteg i am so glad we as mga missionary's get to have the companionship of the holy ghost pretty much 24/7
sorry to hear about your car gregg i hope you can get it fixed and that it wasnt to bad i bet you have a bunch of letters waiting for me at the house and trying to make me sweat haha
and thank you everyone for the care packages i have gotten so far i really enjoy all the letters as well they really are the best thing a missionary can get in the mtc i kind of wish i could always stay out here on a mission so i can always feel the way  i do here its so asteg to be here around so much power of the priesthood and the love and care everyone has for each other the devotionals here are amazing i love them and tonight we get to usher for tonight's devotional guaranteed great seats maybe it will be an apostel fingers crossed (come on uchtdorf) he s so much fun to listen to him and mormon messages have never been so much fun to listen to in my life execpt for seminary before or church we are learing so much here at the mtc i love it i would recommend everyone to do it i can see such abig difference in my life already
sio arinda pat mai pio geana sio flao and sini where s the letters and the love jokelong im sure they will come i love all my adopted family i ll write you all next week sorry this half hour to email is never enough time
Ingat po (polite goodbye) Keet a keets

Week 4 and Sill loving it!

hey everyone its the end of my fourth week here at the mtc its crazy to think i have been here all this time its definitely a great place to be there is something in this food that makes us so gassy haha oh well hopefully i dont put on any weight i ve been working out as much as i can i dont want to get back to 193lbs hard to believe i was ever that big the language is so hard i was struggling for the past week i understand it i just cant recall what im trying to say but luckly i have asteg teachers here at the mtc who loves us and gave me some guidance and gave me some tricks how to memorize better we have a teach named bro mofat he s the man he speaks a million hours its pretty awesome to hear how fast he can speak
i thank everyone for writing me i really love the letters dear elder is awesome, too bad about the fender bender of greggs car it had to happen sooner or later not all of us can have a good driving record like when makayla was cheated in stansbury in that 4 way intersection when i hit a car oh well i m sure its not to bad i love the photos of little issiah he is the coolest half mexican baby i know what else has been going on here at the mtc hmmm i got my hair cut today as short as i could so that president anderson could stop worrying about my hair and also we lost all our good desk in 7m yesterday they said we were spoiled for having them and were giving them to the english speaking missionary's who are here for 3 weeks and were here for 9 but it better just not to argue we are now not allowed any notes in our lessons we just have to go off memory now its becoming a challenge for sure
makayla i did get that care package you sent my roommates love hot cheetos as do i and people want to trade for my paisly its so asteg haha i dont think i ll ever trade any of my ties i wish we had more time in the day for email and letters but we are so busy here plus there feeding us all the time it seems like oh well i do need to eat alot you know all us tall skinny kids who need to eat a lot like constly is more like it haha
i did get my patriarchal blessing in the mail it looked like there was some honey on it oh well i did get a journal size and a Scripture size for my self it so awesome to see that blessing now it makes me wonder whats going to happen next its kind of nice to know to have a guideline of what will happen as long as i follow the lord in my life hopefully i dont have to worry about falling away cause i know the mission will help for sure and i ll have a wife someday who will make sure i stay in line haha jokelang about the wife part im sure we ll be able to rely on each other for anything and i ll have the the strenght and abiltlity to do so i m so gratefull for that blessing i love all you guys hope everything is going good
i m going to try to write all of you next week or through out the week when i have some free time sorry i didnt get to this week i ll do it for sure next week i promise
Gregg how are things going i hope that your little alreo is doing okay how s life going for you besides that is big O awsome are you reading and praying everyday i dont know whats going on with ya so i like to see a email from you or a letter that would be awsome to know whats going on in your life write know
i would like to thank everyone for supporting my mission and that was always was a friend to me i hope everything in your life is going good like mine is write now i can tell the misson is most definitely the best thing i could of done for myself thanks to all those who pushed me in the write directions all the del taco runs or all those nights crashing at your house or just there to talk to thank you all
i would like every one to know why i know young men should go on missions its not just to preach the gospel its so we as young men become men and a better man more patcient more calm more loving and theres a lot of ways we can grow on the mission to grow a more personal relationship with our savior jesus christ and our hevenly father i would ask anyone reading this if they thought about going on a mission do it dont worry about if you ll have enough money your family will help you or the church will (now dont be lazy) its definently worth it ive only been here for almost a month but i have personaly seen the effects its had on me and how much more i turn to the lord now i testify in the name of jesus christ amen

Week 3!!!

kumusta po tayo  how is everyone doing its been a intresting week here at the mtc we had our first trc here it was so asteg ako ng kasama got 2 phillipinos as our 2 ivestgators there from the phillippines they it was so cool to talk to them me and my kasama made this big lesson and we bassically talked to them for 20 minutes it was asteg champre i wish we could do that more often my 2 guros are brother nordstrem he knows alenia makayla and brother mofat he is so down to earth and a great teacher for us it seems like were learining a lot here at the mtc we have found out our class will be down with the grammer in 6 weeks and the last 3 is just all practice i cant wait till this language finnaly sticks in my head and i can finnaly speak it with out thinking to hard its a simple language but weird at times  natuto po si joseph smith sa mga tao (google translate) anyway
so last wednesday i kind of hurt my ankle haha it was kind of a funny story of how it happend so i was jumping off one foot to do a heel click and i put to much pressure on one side of my foot and i think it was just a mild sprang if anything but i did take it easy for a week and it feels a lot better so you doing have to worry i also bought my self a ankle brace just incase it my ankle acts up for sports and logan i get to play basket ball now since the gym open last sunday we saw the legcy church talks are good and all but sometimes you just want to watch a movie am i right haha we went to the temple this morning my kasama doesnt have his reccomend on him and he isnt in the system either so they let us in but he is pretty forgetful on things like he didnt bring a suit jacket with him our branch president was harrasing him about it and our hair even if someone was bald he would tell them to get their hair cuts oh well thats there job i guess
i finally got those glasses in the mail yesterday i was wondering what was taking so long and thore awesome although i seem to be clumbsy when i am walking around so i just use them when i am reading thanks dad for those you spoiled me with a lot of things here i do enjoy all the dear elders there asteg asteg you could send as man as you want i have been writing in my journal every night some are more lengthy then others at leas i am writing in there
we as a class starting reading in the aklit ni morom it is so nice to have everyones insight on the book of mormon we discuss what we think that verse or bursiklio means its the best part of the day for sure besides sports and food other than that its the best ever the mtc seems to get better every week i keep going to the wrap line i cant get enough of it its llke barbracoa i miss it its going to be hard not to have that or rancharitos haha
Logan i found out the the ties you gave me will get ruined cause of all the huminty and ties there are really cheap so when im about to leave the mtc i ll be sure to send those your sunglasses so you dont have those ties ruined thanks again for all those last minute things
little issiah needs to stop growing for at least 2 years and stay that age
How goes getting the blessing and hows everyone doing i cant believe tomorrow will be the start of my 4th week here at the mtc week its going by faster then i thought im tired though cause it seems we all need just a little bit more sleep i almost a fell asleep in the session today it took a lot to stay awake  theres a tree here at the mtc that smells just like cream soday its so crazy i want one of those trees at my house when i have one assuming im rich enough to buy one jokelong the food is still great i stay away from those fake mashed potatoes and only go for the ones that still a potato and not a flake i m from idaho falls so i am aloud that right to be picky about my potatatoes ha ha almost all of us are from idaho huh anyway i m trying to remember to send out some letters and sorry if i dont our days are so busy we dont really get a lot of time to send out letters
alam ko po na totoo po ang aklit ni mormon at pagbabayad-sala ni jesuscristo mhalaga po ang propreta theres a little testimony in sa tagolog sorry im out of time i will talk to you future and missionarys next week keet ta keets

if you could send me some stamps that would be appreciated thank you
write my kasama sometime he doesnt get much letters compared to me his name is elder contreras same misson as me too

Hey!!

kumasta po kayo everyone this week here at the mtc is awesome we got to go to the temple today we didn't get to go last week because the temple was
closed but today i got to do a session for some else then my self its so nice to go to the temple i wish we could go everyday but the language and the gospel classes are more important right now but whoever wants to when i get back we should got to every temple we can
this week with the language of tagalog is more and more interesting we learned how to link sencteces together such as magdasal an kayo tagalog is getting better and better i was asked how to say something in tagalog and with out really thinking about it i was able to say a sentence in tagalog with out much thought the gift of tongues is so powerful i can now say the prayer in sa tagalog when i get back me makayla and dan have to have a conversation sa tagalog so we never forget it but anyway the gym just opened up too sunday night so i havent been able to play basketball till monday so soccer and volleyball was all there was i am a beast at volleyball i was amazed my self asteg ako haha makayla will get that one i hope every one is doing well back home even though im just a hour or 2 away it feels we are further im here at the mtc and im not in babalon thats what they keep refrering to the outside world its pretty interesting i also want to say that the mtc is so asteg (awesome) i love being able to be around espirtoesonto all the time it makes things just so much easy to teach the lessons mainly because he is the best teacher and when your here you can here him so much easyer cause your not distracted with the loud sonds of the world music vulgar language or any distractions in the world
i want to thank all those who are supporting me in the misson and for getting me some misson items im so grateful that i have a grandma & grandpa who loves me enough to spoil me with missionart items if anyone could send me a paisly tie that would be awesome cause it seems im the only one with out one and Logan i still havent thought about trading those ties cause they are so nice thanks again
the food here at the MTC is so mangrap (Delicious) i thinks thats the word anyway but burgers and frys curly home style or tator tots the wrap line is so good it seems i eat that almost every day but last night i had a feast first i had a wrap then i had a taco salad then i went and got some stroganouaff 3 main plates and i could still eat more but you wont have  to worry about me gaining any weight cause im working out with swoal its a little workout program that we have in  our district during personal time so i will stay skinny ang get buffer then joe joe rowberry how is that guy i havent herd anything about him my paperwork for the visa has been submitted so i will be able to go to the Philippines woot woot
oh MaKayla ive been writing in my journal everyday by the way some of them arnt the best entrys but at least im keeping up with them now sunday we got to go to the video of jeffry r Hollands talk forever a missionry it was a great talk i had no idea that an apostle could be so funny he was cracking jokes all over the place and the pictures of issaiah are awesome i havent seem him smile so big before and he s almost crawling thats asteg(awesome) he s going to be able to do anything by the time i get back maybe even driving his own jeep
thanks dad for fowrading those emails from josh i really do appricate it as well as supporting me out here i know you love to do it but salamat anyway
hey Gregg how s it going i havent herd from ya yet hope things good at the O and those free drinks at the kfc taco bell have you tried that new carnasata bowl its good i had it before i left be sure to read your scriptures 1 timothy 2:14 thats a good one haha but also pray

and makayla could you send a coulple of messages on my face book to my friends jessica synndergaard sonja howard just to make sure they have my info if my info isnt on the front page thanks
Im thankful for the opertunty to serve the lord in the phillippines and that i get to closer to our ama sa langit and i hope that everyone gets to have this experince its like the best thing ever well im just about out of time but i ll try to write you some letters if i got the addresses i ll talk to all of you next week untill then Keet ta Keeets

Kasama Pamilya

hey everyone how is everyone doing me i'm doing really good the food is so good here i really enjoy it so much they had some funral potatoes they were so good i had 4 servings of it haha nothing new to me the rest of the food is great too everyone is so nice here once all of us hit Sunday we all started to love this place sundays are the best i saw a video called characterised of christ it was such a good talk it was by david a bednar it mainly talked about how we should all turn out word he told us a story about when he was a stake president he got a phone call in the middle of the night it was a sister in the stake saying that there was  a terrible accident 2 girls were seriously injured and 1 was proncued dead now the sister didn't know who was dead but she was on the phone with 2 people at the same time the stake president and the nurse at the hospital and so as she was talking to both of them the stake president herd from the other phone that her only child passed away but instead of feeling sorry for herself she told the stake president to call the other mothers to let them know whats going on but the stake president was asked to id the girls from the accident so he went to the hospital and id all 3 of them but before the funral the sister whos daughter died called the president and said I want you to see the body the morgtions did a wonderful job making her look better she was concerned that presidents last memory of her daughter wasnt a bad image another great example of turning out word
the day of the funaral she got a call from a sister in the ward who was sick complain no one has brought her a meal now she didnt know about the accident but the sister brought a meal to her before heading to her daughters funral i know we should all strive to be like that sister and turn outward just as the savior did
'i want to thank everyone for writing me i really appreciate it letters are the best thing ever here its like mtn dew or chocolate for the females reading this haha the mtc is such a wonderful place with all the food the spirit and the people here there willing to help my mtc teach is bro normstrom he say s he knows aliana makayla what a qua dink a dink  but i met a sister who went on a mission in idaho and knew uncle grant small world huh
now the language of tagalog is coming along a lot better now we just learned how to use ang ng and sa meaning we can make sentences make sense now the language is so awesome i love it it makes so much more sense then english i dont know why we dont all speak it haha oh well must be a reason
Logan thanks for the care package and the charger it is really cool you did that and my companion is elder contreas he is mexican but a realy cool elder he finds humor in a lot of things and wants to always be studding talk about being dedicated he even suggested skiping meals but i couldnt give up food

well i ask to do a favor for me i heard about the massacre in colorado i d ask if you could say a prayer of comfort for those famlies
well i love all of you thank you for all the letters again i ll try to write you some letters keet ta keets

Zach's farewell is this Sunday at 12:50 in Layton Utah July 15th! Come and hear an amazing missionary talk as well as visit and say your goodbyes.  We are excited for you Zach as you learn tagalog in the MTC, and travel half way around the world to teach the wonderful people of Baguio. Good luck Zach! We love you, and we will miss you!  We are so proud of what you are doing. :)