2.28.2012

Your birthday sounds so awesome! also i sent a long letter yesterday that explains the sunday routine, i talk my teachers, etc. so look forward to that. (it's in English haha)

As far as anything I need, I think I'm good...ya good for now. I dont have many emails this week so i have like 25 mins for this email :D also looking forawrd to the dictionary, hopefully I'll get it today. also got all my birthday stuff

I am seriously learning more than I ever thought possible, I felt like I had a small testimony of the gospel and things, but whatever I had has certainly increased at least 20 fold! the gospel basically boils down faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, and the Book of Mormom, the Book of Mormom, the Book of Mormom, the Book of Mormom. i know we have inspired teachers here because just when I think i have a grip on something or i know everything, they talk about a basic principle in a way that I had never thought about before. Without a testimony of the BofM, people will never truly have faith in any aspect of this church, so I am at least glad I had a pretty firm testimony that the BofM is true. you kind of get thrown into things so fast you don'e have time to build your testimony on your own time. you're expected to have a testimony of everything and to be able to be able to share that testimony with everyone! A huge principle that I struggled with at first is that during personal study time, you dont just read the BofM to study, you need to study it and other things directly for your investigators. by doing this, they told us, we would gain our own knowledge. It was hard and still is to do. but i can testify it's true. Sometimes it's much easier to just read and kind of relax during study time, but that's not what we're here to do.

I know that we absolutley must have a knowledge and testimony of the BofM. i know that it is true, and I know that Joseph Smith translated it. I know Jesus Christ came to earth and suffered for each and every one of us. I know that we can be forgiven of our sins through the redeeming power of His Atonement. i know our Heveanly Father loves us, and that he truly does want us to live with Him again.

Haha it's weird writing it and thinking about it in english beacause as I was writing it I was totally thinking of the Malay words. I think my favorite lesson to teach is the Plan of Salvation, or Rencangan Penyelamatan. I love how exact it is and i also like drawing the plan on a chalkboard haha.

Anyways, I thought about telling you about gym time haha. at first I played four square, and it's fun, but the line usually gets way too long, and it's pretty hard. but i can testify that everything Carson claimed to happen in four square is true haha. I play volleyball now because it's way more fun and you get to play longer. theres an elder in the other Singapore district who played in high school in California. I guess his team, or some team he played on won state and he was the MVP. Anyways he's of course really tall and skinny, but he can spike so well you wouldn't believe haha. Sometimes I swear he just floats above the net. I thought i was pretty good but I can hold my own. last minute! send some picture by mail or email! that tiny one of our family is junk haha!

Love you all, halfway through the MTC!

Elder Giblette

2.21.2012

That's so awesome about the Lowry's being sealed!and awesome to learn new things. thank you for the reminder about garments, sometimes I definitely see when missionaries aren't so careful to remember their importance. The email isn;t working right, so i had to compse a new email and cannot see exactly what to reply to. I'm glad you were able to find a dictionary, I'm sure it will work just fine. we haven't heard anyhitng about ours yet so go ahead and order that one. thanks! it's been frustrating having to share one between the whole district.

bad news haha, long story short I ripped the inseam on one of my slacks! Luckily not one of my suit slacks, but I don;t know if i should take em to the alteration place here, or if i should send them home. let me know! that story about hayden is awesome haha. at least ONE thing good is coming from the xbox. I can't to get my package haha. as for the birthday thing, surprise us on whther its brownies or cupcakse. donuts are actually awesome as well. I love my district/companion more everyday. unfortunately i have gone into negative time, so i must wrap up :/ I will write a letter today so i can write whatever i want haha. sorry to anyone else reading this, i only have a half hour to email so if you would like to hear from me the best way is to write a letter or use the Dear Elder service.

Love you all!

Elder Giblette

2.14.2012

Subject: Re: We're Back!

Hey dad! (and mom) I'm starting to get into the routine of the MTC finally, so now it;s just kind of a matter of time haha. The cruise sounded awesome, especially the part about two old farts body boarding. But that's more fun than what I've ever done in the ocean haha. It's seems hard to imagine you and warren being tossed around hahaha.

So my district is six elders, no sisters. They were originally goin to have one Singapore district, but about half the elders sent in their reception letters so they were only planning on about 8 missionaries originally. So there are 11 total going to Singapore, with two sisters. they split us into two districts, the other having a threesome of elders. Two of my companions are from Arizona, one from Utah, one from Hawaii, and my companion is an military child so he's kinda from everywhere. He's got a few quirks and he's overall kind of an awkward kid, but he's really smart and I'm starting to get used to him. He got a 34 on his ACT! he did a semester at Provo and he thinks he wants to major in some kind of mathmatics.

A typical day in the MTC, well all weekdays except P-Day have the same thing, but switched around depending on the day. So we'll have breakfast at 8:00, sometimes with daily planning before that, we'll have lunch at 12:45, and dinner at 5:45. Everyday had two seperate 3-hour class times, and then an hour of language study, an hour of learning the language with a computer program called TALL. and basically Personal Study time to fill in whatevers left. We go back to residence at 9:30, and quiet time starts at 10:15, then lights out at 10:30. the freetime at night flies by so fast it's hard to do much. I've found it relaxing to sew/repair stuff like ties and stuff.

I brought more stuff than I think anybody else, and we're slowly gaingin bit n pieces from our teachers the things we need or don't need. The language is coming along, I'm always amazed at how much I already know after only two weeks. I'd write some stuff in Malay but it kinda takes a while still and I don't have much time. Most of our learning materials are actually in Indonesian because the church has been there longer. Indonesian came from Malay, so it's really similar, but it's really frustrating because you'll learn something in Indo, and then our teachers will say that's wrong because it's not the same for Malay... oh well. the dictionary our teachers wanted to get are out of print, so they're currently working on finding another, but they suggested that we try to get one sent to us. They said you should not have to spend more thatn about $40 to get a good one. So it would be really helpful to get a Malay to English, and English to Malay. They said you could probably look on amazon for one. I'm out of time but I'm gonna try to print out some pictures and send them cuz I don't think there is a way to uupload them in an email :/

thanks for everything! Love you so much!