Phantom of the Opera

I had to type real fast.
Okay this week’s blog, it will be fast because this computer doesn’t have a timer so I don’t know how long it will take. The language has been going really well. We finally got a chance to teach a lesson to our Stake President in English and it went soooo well. I think that it was the confidence booster that we needed because we were beginning to think that we sucked at teaching really bad.

Our investigators have been going really well also. Manny, is one of our investigators, his wife died and he has two children and is a doctor. The other day we had a lesson and it was really awesome! We taught about the plan of salvation and at the same time, everyone started to cry, it was crazy!
I think I have figured out why it is forbidden to sing at the MTC (that’s a rule that I didn't really understand before, I thought it was really dumb) but it’s because whenever people sing, I usually want to punch them in the face. (or something to that effect in the most Christlike manner:)) So that seems to be a problem here, is that everyone thinks that they are the next star of the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, sooo annoying. Anyways, when people do try out for musical numbers and stuff, they are usually amazing! I was telling my kasama (companion) the other day that if the church music that comes out on cds and on the radio and stuff was as amazing as the musical numbers here, then I might actually like to listen to church music, but as it is, it’s usually the awful shower singers that are the ones that make it on the radio and get cds. What’s up with that? Yup.../; been typing for a while now and the girl next to me is still singing the phantom of the opera.... same song. Definitely have the spirit of contention with me right now.
Made it through week three! Yessss! Only twice that far to go until I make it out into the field!
Anyway if anyone wants to write to me, I’ve discovered that I am really good at writing people back while I’m in the MTC:) Can’t make any guarantees once I get out into the field! Love you all! Mahla Kita! (I love you!)

Watch these Mormon messages "Dare to stand Alone" and "Sanctify yourself" they really are pretty good, I love them!

Substitutes and famous people

So this week was a lot harder and a lot better than last week. We got to teach our investigator a lot more and I am excited to continues teaching investigators along the way. One thing that made it really difficult was that we are supposed to have two full time teachers in our class to teach us everyday, But one of the teachers was on a school trip for the week and only got back yesterday, and the other one got married this week so he wont be our teacher anymore.... what does that mean you might ask? Substitutes.... everyday. So then we were having to introduce ourselves to new people sometimes up to 4 times a day and none of teh subs really knew what we were supposed to be learning so it was really frustrating. One day we had four substitute teachers!!!! There was a teacher for weach companionship, but mostly they ignored us and just talked to each other.... nice, thats professional.

My Companion and I still get along really well though! So that is definitely a blessing! We have been teaching the lessons to our investigators, but didn't really have any lessons that were like, "Woah we worked together reallly well on that lesson. But yesterday when we were teaching we both were just like feeding off of each other and we were teaching with the spirit! It was awesome! We were both so happy.

I've seen an Elder from my home town almost everyday since I have been here. It is nice to see a familiar face. Shout out to the Saunders family! Also a shout out to the Crapo family! Tanyss is in my residence hall and also the same building as me for class, so she is in my zone. I see her all the time. For those of you who are wondering who Tanyss is, she is a girl who went to a high school close to mine and we became really good friends when we went on the senior trip to D.C.

We went to the temple today! That's always amazing, On our way out we weer a little starstruck as Donny Osmond walked into the temple. My kasama and I were both like "uh.... was that Donny? Craziness!

The language is finally starting to make sense to me so I'm really grateful for that!

Out purpose as missionaries is to invite others to come unto Christ through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end!

I hope that I can be that example! Love you all!

Mahal

-Sister Schultz

MTC: Week One

Okay so Here I am at the MTC and I finally made it to my first P-day. That's code for preparation day. The MTC is crazy! Our days are planned out to the T, but let me start at the beginning. After eating free breakfast at Ihop the morning that I came to the MTC, we stopped at the park and took a few pictures.... which I am still waiting for my family to send me. Then we drove in, said our final goodbyes (in like 2 minutes) and I was off! Two elders took me to a Sister, Sister Lamp, and she took me to my Residence, which is basically like a dorm room only without the loud noises and parties. Then I got ready and went straight to class.

That's where it got a little intense. The teacher asked me first thing what my name was and where I was from, only in the MTC you only talk in the language that you are learning, so it was all in Tagalog. I was all sorts of confused about what he was asking me, but quickly figured it out. We have non-stop been speaking the language since then. In the Philippines it's a grammer rule that consonants have to be surrounded by vowels, so all of their sentences and words are really long. To give you an example (a pretty extreme example, but still my favorite) the word for faith is pananamalataya. Like I said, that is the most extreme example that I could think of, but I'm going for sympathy here people!

Each day we spent 12 hours in the classroom studying our language and sentence structure, then we spend 1 hour in the gym, and an hour and a half between for meals. Right now we have an investigator that we meet with for 3 hours during class. Each of us usually only ends up taking about 15 minutes but sometimes it takes longer. Our investigators story is that he is in the United States because he needs to have surgery on his foot because he has an infection in his toe. His uncle told him that he would pay for the operation if he would take the missionary instructions. For all those people who know.... I know. Anyways, while we were teaching the lesson yesterday, my companion accidently stepped on our investigators foot! It was the funniest thing that I have ever seen! I had to try so hard not to laugh.

We do the best that we can to teach him, but we both struggle a lot with the language.... imagine that, struggling with the language after only five days. Anyways, the food here is really good, but my companion and I try to eat salads for all of our meals everyday, we are determined to not get fat. If you have any questions, feel free to post them at the bottom and my sister will forward them on to me.

Philippines Laoag Mission

My sister for the most part is going to be updating this blog throughout the duration of my mission, so everyone can keep up with me as I go along through this if they would like to.
                I guess to start off I will tell you a little bit about myself and go from there. My name is Julia Schultz and I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In my religion what we believe can be summed up in 13 basic bullet points:

-          We believe in God the Eternal Father and in his son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

-          We believe that men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adams transgression.

-          We believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.

-          We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are first, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Second, Repentence. Third, baptism by emersion for the remission of sins, fourth,  the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

-          We believe that a man must be called of God by prophesy, and by the laying on of hands, by those who are in authority to preach the gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.

-          We believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive church. Namely apostles, prophets, pastors, preachers, evangelists and so for.

-          We believe in the gift of tounges, prophesy, revelation, visions, healings, interpretation of toungues, and so forth.

-          We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. We also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

-          We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe that he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

-          We believe in the literal gathering of Isreal and in the restoration of the ten tribes. That Zion, the New Jerusalem, will be build upon this the American continant.

-          We claim the privilege of worshipping almighty God according top the dictats, of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege. Let them worship how, where, or what they may.

-          We believe in being subject to kings, Presidents, Rulers, and magistrates, ad in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the Law.

-          We believe in being honest , true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all man, indeed we may say that we follow the admonission of Paul. We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

These are the 13 articles of faith that we govern our lives by. Many people think that Latter-Day Saints, or Mormons, are forced to live a lifestyle that they otherwise would not choose. That is not neccesarily true. We still have agency just like the rest of the world but we believe in doing so according to our own conscieous. When we are young we are taught the things that are right and the things that are wrong according to our religious perspective. It is then our choice on what we choose to believe and act upon. That doesn’t mean that if we choose incorrectly that we are going to be struck down, it is all a part of the process that we have to go through on this Earth.
                You may be asking yourself what happens if we do make a wrong descision in our lives. Are we shunned from our religion, are we off clean and clear just for asking for permission? No. We believe in the atonement of Jesus Christ. We believe that through the sacrifice that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ did for us that we can go through the process of repenting of sins that we have done. In this process not only do you apologize and ask the Lord for forgiveness, but you make a promise with the Lord never to give into the temptation of that sin again.
                For more information on any of this visit LDS.org. The official site for Latter-Day Saints. Anyways, when we reach a certain age in our religion, we are invited to serve a mission. During this time young men (usually at the age of 19) spend two years, and young women (usually around the age of 21) spend 18 months dedicating their time to serving the Lord. Spreading the gospel of what we believe and know to be true to all those who want to hear it. We travel to places all over the world. From the United States, to Africa, Spain, the Philippines, and anywhere in between. The choice is ours to serve and most are more than willing to do so.
                So what does all of this have to do with me? When I was fourteen years old I decided that I wanted to serve a mission. I prepared myself and always did everything that I was supposed to do to be worthy to serve a mission. No one and nothing was going to get in my way. When I was 20 I went in for my bishop’s interview, after going to this interview you can start your mission papers. You have to get shots and immunizations, dental work, and any medical problems taken care of before sending in your papers (you might think of mission papers as a very thourough work application).
                So I went to this interview in January and started my papers shortly after. For some reason I had a really strong feeling that I needed to wait until July to put in my papers. I didn’t know why, but I listened to this feeling, and stopped working on my papers. In February I met a man named Cache, and we started to date. Since then we have been dating and we know now that we want og get married someday. I had completely given up the idea of going on a mission. I knew that I wanted to marry Cache and nothing was doing to stop me from doing so. One day however, I had this sinking feeling that I still needed to go on a mission. I told Cache and we spent the next couple of days trying to figure out what we were going to do. He told me that if this was what I decided that he would support me in that.

                Im not saying that it has been all peaches and cream, because it definitely has not been. It has been harder than anything that I have ever done in my entire life, but I know that it will be worth it. So I finished my paper work and got my called exactly ten days later. (The fastest that it is possible to get your call).

Now, two months later I am here in Provo about to enter into the Missionary Training Center to share what I know with the world. After countless nights of rethinking, telling myself that it would be okay to stay, retelling myself that I need to go, I am here. Preparing to teach the world. I am going to be a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints, serving in the Laoag, Philippines mission. My sister will be updating this blog so keep up with me if you would like to!