"Kita kits" MTC

So.... this is my last p-day at the MTC.. its weird to think my next time on email will be halfway around the world!!! haha 

But this week has been great!!! Yesterday was in-field orientation and we learned sooooo much! it was super fun!!! its crazy how big a part members have in the work of salvation!!! The absolute best way we can help people come to know the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is through the combined effort of both members and missionaries... every new member of the church needs a friend! and really anyone can fill that role for anyone! 

Another really great and amazing thing we learned is this... the central part of our purpose (as member and full time missionaries) is helping people come closer to Christ.. and for people not of the church it is baptism... but the important part is once they've accepted baptism then the work is not finished! Part of our purpose is helping them endure to the end! and that means walking together on the path of righteousness!! it brings soo much happiness!!!!

I cant wait to actually go out into the field and be around people again!!

I think im gonna miss the mtc to an extent!! the experience has beenn soooo uplifting!! so spiritual!! but i love you all!!! 

-Elder Navarro

Its a great day to be a missionary!

p.s. (we have some fun too)

1 month

Kumusta!

Its really insane that it has already been a month into the mission! still feels like yesterday i just got here... but its also weird that this feels like the only life ive known! So its really a weird feeling!

This week has been awesome! As expected there were moments of feeling super awesome as well as moments of discouragement... I believe that the Lord is preparing me and i'm getting just a little taste of the joy as well as the hardships that will come up in the mission. One of the sweet joys of the week was this: We have an investigator (our teacher) who has been really the hardest to teach just because he doesnt believe in God all that much and he asks "why" or "how" for every thing we say.. and because of our limited vocab.. it was pretty difficult to be able to teach him anything that would matter... so my companion and I gave planned to teach him about faith because the only way he could know God was to exercise faith and ask him what was truth.. so we did the lesson and i dont remember too much about the lesson besides that we shared a scripture about faith in 2 Nephi 31 (which explains soooooooo greatly what faith is) we were able to help him find out for himself what faith was.. what i really remember tho was how good i felt during the lesson... he would ask a question and i would be able to understand super well what he was saying and i prayed the whole time that i would know what he needs and what to say... and it was as if the words were just flowing from my mouth!! it was such an amazing feeling!! a few days later we taught him again and this time the feeling was the same!! in our evaluation afterwards he was telling us how good he felt as an investigator and that it was the best lesson thus far in the MTC!!

But as a result of this i also learned how sensitive the spirit is! because i guess i was probably feelin a little too good about my tagalog skills.. that in a lesson following we went in and really had like no idea what to say or what she really needed or what she was saying or how to speak tagalog really!! that feeling really was terrible! ha.... but a valuable lesson and humbling experience for sure!!!

Well things are awesome here! just got our flights plans so im supperrr excited!!! we go from SLC to Seattle to Tokyo to Manila!! soooo pumped!!!! 

But yeah have a great week and mahal kita!

Elder Navarro

Final Email from the MTC

HEY!!! 

yeah im soooooooo excited to go!!! i feel like in a way im gonna kinda miss the mtc! we just had in field orientation yesterday!!!  it was such an awesome experience!! learned so much about HOW missionary work really happens... its crazy because as missionaries we are kinda like the head in command of the area we are assigned to! the work depends pretty heavily on our efforts and us relying on the Lord. it was awesome!! those senior pictures look great!!! except for the ball with my name! haha jkjk where were those taken?? they look awesome!! i  got jordan a cool shirt..... how do i send it haha??? but yeah! hows school for him?? ill get a call card.. but ill most likely be calling you at around 8 or 9... somewhere around there... ill try to call from seattle and tokyo.. maybe.. but we dont have much layover time after we leave salt lake.. and im not too worried about the language... i work hard to learn it and ill just have to be patient with myself... and byu lost right? 

Oh funny story.. yesterday at the orientation.. this girl came up to me cuz we had to pick someone and share a scripture with them... long story short.. she asked for my email... i was thinking "seriously??? you're on a mission!!!!!" haha but i got a good laugh out of it.

i hope you got my letter! ummmmm yeah.... these last few days are gonna be cool! tomorrow the branch president is pretty much gonna hang out with the two districts that leave on thursday.. he's gonna show us pictures and stuff which will be cool! but yeah! they said that we will be able to watch meet the mormons on sunday!!!!!! YESSSSSS!!!!! I think ive listened to glorious by david archuleta a thousand times haha.... while i study tagalog of course. and ive watched the trailer more than enough times! ha but yeah! did you see it?? was it good?

well i hope you can email back!! i have like 45 more minutes on email so yeah! 

oh ps.. i have almost the whole first vision memorized sa tagalog! whooooo!!!!

What a GREAT week!

Kumusta mga kaibigan at pamilya!!!!

How's life going?? What's new??

This week has again FLOWN by!!!! (I'm starting to think i should just expect it to do that!) But I think I'll start with General Conference! The messages were AMAZING! Its incredible and a miracle that every one has personal relevance to all of us! And the people of the church come from so many backgrounds and situations, yet each message can be directly applied to a persons life! I have many favorites from this last weekend but the two that stick out are Elder Hollands from Saturday Afternoon and President Uchtdorf's from Priesthood Session... I've really been trying to focus on "turning outward" to others and Elder Hollands hit home for me and just put into perspective the purpose of why Christ was so charitable! We watched a MTC talk a few sundays ago by elder Bednar about the Character of Christ. And how the natural man has a tendency to turn inward  or to focus on the self... But to be like Christ we have to "put off the natural man" and "turn outward' And really we find ourselves when we're not focusing on the self... We find purpose in life only when we focus on others! And then Elder Uchtdorf's in Priesthood session about asking the question "Lord, is it I?" when people have a tendency to put the blame on others "Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" I loved that message!

Singing in General Conference was a truly once in a lifetime experience and i was really blown away with how much divine assistance we received in the choir.... Before we performed I personally and the director was pretty nervous about the pitch of the choir.... but i know that we had a lot of help when we sang that day....

So this week has been really great! We struggled a little with teaching our "progressing investigators" early this week but really turned it around these last couple days! In fact yesterday i think was the best lesson my companion and i have ever given thus far.... I'm know it is because we figured out just a little bit how much we have to rely on God for guidance in a lesson! As we taught i was constantly in prayer asking what Heavenly Father would have me say and then i felt as though my "tongue was loosed"!!! I was understanding EVERYTHING he was saying and the best part was I could reply! Not in perfect Tagalog by any means.... but I felt as though the words coming out of my mouth were not my own... which really was an answer to my prayer!!

Also!! met some filipino missionaries that are here from several parts of the phils! Super exciting to talk to them about the Philippines!!!

Anyways.... Mahal ko ang ebanghelyo ni Jesucristo!!! Mahal ko and Espiritu Santo!!  

Mahal Kita! Ingat!

Elder Navarro

MTC Priesthood Choir

Dang there seems to be a lot of really exciting and really devestating news going on back home. its crazy you dont realize while you are here how disconnected you are from the world! but it couldnt be truer! I know absolutely nothing from the real world! besides the occasional football update from the branch president who is OBSESSED with football! haha he's super fun though!!! and there are no sisters going to cauayan here right now... however two of the teachers in the tagalog hall are RM's from cauayan so thats pretty cool to talk to them! one of them had president rahlf! she was talking about him the other day and she absolutely loved them! mom i am sooooooo sorry! but i literally do not have time to figure out pictures today... i only have 20 mins of comp time left and i left the camera back at residence! but i promise i willl get it to work next saturday! sorry! i would but we leave at nooon today for SLC... which i am ssuuuuuupppppppeeeeerrrrr excited for !! the director is amazing and the biggest thing he told us is that we are not singing for our own good... we're singing for Heavenly Father! the MTC president was at rehearsal yesterday and he taliked to us about humility! another thing that is cool is that many prayers have been said asking that angels will attend us while we sing! and i have no doubt that Heavenly Father will send down angels to help us! AMAZING!!!! but you have to listen to our songs!!!! were doing things that have never been done at a General Conference before!! its going to be special!!!!!!! :) Love ya!!! and pdays: we go to the temple.. relax a little.. write letters... eat.. play ball if the gym is open... so yeah! MTC basketball and volleyball are SSSUUUPPPPEEERRRR fun bytheway hahaha

Love

Elder Navarro

ohhhhhhh p.s.... its getting kinda chilly here....... sooooooo could you maybe send a nice sweater... like that dark blue and gray one.... maybe... ha thanks!!

 

Week 2

Kumusta po kayo!

Things over here are finally starting to settle down! The first week of schedule is always kinda different everyday but now we have settled down to a more consistent schedule. for those who asked.. my schedule is like this: 

630 arise and pray

700 planning

730 breakfast

800 personal study

900 companionship study

1000 language study

1115 gym time

1230 lunch

115 classroom instruction

430 more study time

530 dinner

615 classroom

930 return and plan 1030 bedtime

So yeah! So im not sure if i mentioned the investigator we have been teaching in tagalog for the past week, but her name is melody. She's from the Philippines and works for an LDS family. She works to send money to support her family in the phils but there has some problems in the family. She wanted to know why they were so happy! and so we've been teaching her almost every day since we've got to the mtc and its been really hard but ive learned so much from it not only in the language but in how to teach with the spirit. The spirit is literally the most important thing in any meeting with someone who is interested in the church! But we taught her some simple lessons, introduced the Book of Mormon, taught her how to pray and all that jazz! And in our last lesson we invited her to be baptized and she accepted!!!! IT was the greatest feeling in the world!! And even though she was an actor, i had grown to love her character Melody as a child of God!! I was actually kind of shocked at how happy and excited i was!

But yeah so then we didnt have any more lessons with her so we were wondering if we'd ever see her again... but long story short.. she's now one of our teachers in class! haha it was actually pretty weird to see her speak some english and now she was teaching us! kinda cool! But Gosh i dont have much time.... 

I went to choir and found out that there would be a MTC choir singing in general conference!!!!!! for priesthood session!! so obviously not every elder would be able to go so they did a survey to decide who would be in it...I took it... And im in the Elders choir!!!!!! I will have the opportunity to sing at general conference for priesthood session! WAHOO! :) I'm so excited and grateful that i get to part of such an amazing and humbling experience! :)

K out of time! Thanks for all the love and support! Love you all!

Elder Navarro

It's a GREAT day to be a Missionary

WOW!

Its amazing and surreal that I'm here at the MTC! Its been such and amazing and spiritual experience so far and there is so much to say in terms of what we have done! So i got dropped off and then immediately went to get my name tag and that was an amazing thing in itself because it feels like ive been waiting to see that thing my whole life! The excitement was just overwhelming! We then had a meeting/devotional with part of the MTC presidency with all the new missionaries that day and we sang some songs but the cool thing was that they altered the words on the screen to fit our new call as missionaries! For example, we sang the army of helaman  song and instead of saying "we will be the Lord's missionaries" we sang "we ARE NOW the Lord's missionaries". When we all sang those words and looking around and seeing all the excited missionaries with the newly acquired name tags, it was like a wave of goosebumps all over!!! 

Another cool thing was when i was picked up, Elder Seely came and got me! (for those who dont know him, we were in mission prep together and became friends because we were both going to the Philippines) So that was really comforting and excited to see someone i knew right away and the fact that he was in my zone! Oh, and our zones are basically organized into languages, so my whole zone is learning Tagalog!

Oh Tagalog... I got into my first class and i see a younger man standing in the room, he looks at me and then starts speaking this language to me!! i could recognize it was Tagalog but as to what he was saying.. I had no clue!!! haha and then he didnt stop speaking tagalog to me so really it was like playing a big game of charades for a while! The teacher's name is Brother Kaka and he is from New Zealand. He served his mission in Manila and wow he is an amazing teacher! Everyone who has been here says we are really lucky to have him as our teacher and i can tell why! We learn about how to teach people as we are learning the language! it really helps and i can literally feel the spirit helping us learn and remember! The teachers really  We've made so much progress in these 3 days there is no doubt in my mind that the gift of tongues is real! I've learned more tagalog in 3 days than i have my whole life!

Okay so last night we got the opportunity to teach our first investigator! Her name is Melody. She's filipino and works for and LDS family here in utah. Her family is still in the Philippines and she is having some problems with them, however, we dont know exactly what they are... But so the interesting thing is that SHE DOESNT UNDERSTAND ENGLISH. So me and my companion (Elder Hardy from Highland, UT) go in and i felt pretty confident about talking to her for the most part. We shared a scripture with her and it didnt go exactly how we had hoped but ya know.. we felt the spirit so its alright. But the crazy thing is that I could understand what she was saying even though we havent learned most of what she says! The gift of interpretation is real and all the missionaries around me feel the same way!

Anyway im sorry this letter is long... but I know that this is the work of God going on here! Everything we do at the MTC is to help us fulfill our purpose which is to help others come unto Christ! I know He is real and that He lives! I can feel His spirit with us so much more here at the MTC than ever before! Our Heavenly Father knows us and He knows exactly what we need for us to stretch and grow and nothing that happens when we are serving Him is a coincidence. I know it and i'm learning the importance of obedience. 

This has already been fun, exciting, spiritual, and difficult. But i know as we really on our Heavenly Father, he will help us through anything. 

I love you all!

Elder Navarro 

(P.S my p-day is Saturday)