Flight Plans!

WE FINALLY GOT OUR FLIGHT PLANS!! We got them yesterday in our mailbox. I am beyond excited! I'll try to tell you a little bit about them right now, and I'll be back on later around 4. So, we get to leave the MTC on Monday, January 9th at 1:30pm! Our flight out of Salt Lake is at 4:50 pm and will connect to the San Francisco Airport around 6 california time. We then have a 6 HOUR layover in California until we catch out flight to Hong Kong at 12:05 am. Once we get to Hong Kong, we will be meeting up with all the other Philippines bound missionaries from here (They split us into 3 groups) and we'll have a 3 hour layover before be catch our flight to Manilla. From there we will travel by ground to the Angeles mission home. 
 I know that I know over 200 vocab words... but I'm not really sure on the real number? I think that I've felt the biggest change in my perspective. I'm trying to follow Elder Bednar's council and turn outwards more like Christ.

Ingot, Mahal kita!

-Elder Garett Smith

Almost Christmas

Hey Mom!

I didn't forget about e-mail today! I got on this morning, pretty early and there wasn't an email from you yet so I decided I would wait until later. Sorry for making you wait.  When I write letter's to Kelsey, we have a designated "Urgent Q's & A's" section where we list all the things we want to be sure the other person responds to! Maybe you could try something like that. I've also heard that there have been a lack of post to my Mission blog lately... maybe you could look into that for me? =) Anyways, all is well here. Another week down, and only a few more to go! I get more and more excited the closer it gets. I have more excitement for departure than I do for Christmas! You asked about travel plans... we haven't gotten any word on that yet. It seems like most of the previous districts got theirs the week before the left. Don't worry, I'll let you know when I know. I spent most of the morning writing letters back to everyone that has sent me things this week. I received some letters from Sarah, Karlee, The Packers, and Jamie, along with a care package from Grandma, Tara/The Jackson family, and you. I was surprised to see a package in the mail from "Tara Jackson." Inside was a stocking stuffed with candy, as well as there family Christmas card. I'm not sure if the stocking came from Tara or her whole family so I send Thanks to all of them. I wrote a quick note to Dad, Hunter, and Jamie that should be coming soon. I figured you could have the e-mail, but I'll probably write you another letter this week telling you about Christmas and what not. We will be having a GA on Sunday, they just haven't told us who yet. They like to keep everything under wraps here. I'm looking forward to having a few days that aren't the usual routine. They have things planned for Christmas Eve as well. I feel like I type and type but don't get much down on the page. I'm sorry for that!!.

What else did you write about...

Oh, we did recieve 20 new elders into our Branch this week. We haven't seen them much yet though because they haven't finished their first 3 days, and they all live on the 4th floor of our residence halls. We all live on the bottom floor (thankfully). One of the new Elders is actually my old district leader's brother (my district leader was adopted into their family). I think that's pretty cool that they'll both be going to the Philippines!

One more cool thing I want to share before I go is an experience from last night. Last night we had TRC which is where we teach volunteer members that know Tagalog. They are usually just BYU students. That's what we expected going in, but to our surprise we had a Filipino Mother and her two daughters. They live here in Oram. Anyways, it was a really cool lesson! She asked us where we were serving and we told her Angeles. She got really excited and told us that they had family there that weren't members. She asked us to try and find them, and teach them if we could. We told her we would try our best to help her! Anyways, we went on with out lesson and gave an overview of the Restoration (Ang Pananumbalik) and then shared a quick Christmas message with them. We had to translate our lesson into English for the daughters which was fine by us!! It was a neat experience and they Spirit was really strong as we talked about Christ being the "Pure love of God" as talked about in 1 Nephi 11:16-23. When Nephi is shown the baby Jesus in Mary's arms, he can FEEL that pure love, and instantly knows the meaning of the Tree of live. The Angel didn't have to tell him. What a cool insight!!

I'm glad to hear that everything is going well at home. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. I'll be thinking about you a lot on Christmas eve and day! One of the things I'll miss is staying up late and playing Wii with my brothers. Staying up playing Mario is a tradition almost as old as building the fort itself! If I really wanted to, I could make the bottom bunk a fort for myself since my companion sleeps on the other bunk. We still don't have roommates. Our old Zone Leader left a few weeks ago with Elder Fisher and Elder Hubble, and they called another one after, Elder Shaw and Elder Frishnick. Elder Shaw actually came out on a mission earlier and went to the Philippines but had to return home because of some issues. He's back now, and also pretty fluent in Tagalog, so that helps our branch. He's in one of the other branches that came in at the same time as me. There's three of our districts that came in together.

I love you all, and can't wait to hear more from you soon! I'll try to quickly check my email later tonight!

Mahal kita!!

Christmas Party

Hello again! 

Thanks for the picture of the Christmas tree. I was going to ask you for one anyways, so you read my mind! Grandma mentioned your "Ugly Sweater" contest in her last letter to me. She confided in me that she wasn't really sure what an "Ugly Sweater" contest was, but that her and Grandpa went to the D.I and found some sweaters to decorate. You should definetly take some pictures of everyone and send them to me! It should be pretty funny. What else are you doing for the family party? Let me know in your next DearElder. Also, Grandma asked me a question in her last letter about how we teach our lessons to the "investegators." She was assuming that we taught in English. NOT at all. I don't think we've been allowed to teach a single lesson in English so far! Last night, we had TRC which is where BYU students come and we teach them as the members they really are. We were lucky enough to get a student that was actually Filipino, which was really cool. He spoke very fast and it was hard to understand him at times but still a good experience. After the lesson, he also told us more about the country and gave us a few pointers. That's all I can think of for now! I hope everyone has a great time at the party, and I look forward to hearing from everyone SOON! =)
If anyone asks what to send me for Christmas just tell them that I want cards and letters. That's all I need. You're right about all the food. First of all, they feed us plenty here... secondly, all of us have more sweets than we know what to do with. We try to share with eachother but none of us are ever hungry! Please let Grandma know that I did recieve her package she sent a few days ago. She was wondering how it worked.

In other news, earlier this week I left my hoodie in the gym. I went back later to get it from the Lost and Found but it wasn't there. Someone must have taken it. Hopefully they needed it more than me! Anyways, I am now without a jacket to wear and it's getting a little chilly here! So, if you get around to it, could you send me one of my hoodies or jackets? You could send it through MTCdelivery if you hurry. The mailroom will stop accepting mail from third parties on Dec. 23rd!

I better be going for now, but I hope everyone is doing well. Like usual, I'll be back on later this afternoon around 4 so be expecting that. Feel free to send me any questions or anything for me to answer at that time! 
Mahal Kayo! (I love you all)

-Elder Garett Smith

It's December

Dear Nanay,

I got your christmas box yesterday which was perfect timing. The cinnimon pinecones have made our room smell 200x's better than it did before. You can even smell it down the hallway, but no one complains. My District has named my room "The Christmas Room." Last night everyone came into our room around 10 and we read the first Christmas mission story from that book you sent. We plan on doing that everynight until Christmas. Everyone loves the lights and mini tree as well--especially the train that goes around it! Thanks so much. It made me happy. The almonds you sent are amazing as well, so good job on picking those!

The language is definetly coming along a lot better than it was before. Things are making more sence now that we have some basics under our feet. You asked me about Elder Hubble in one of your letters. I didn't see him all the time since he wasn't in our branch, but we did talk on and off. Everyone loved having him around. He knows how to lighten the mood and has a good sense of humor. He left on Tuesday and left beind some stuff for me and the other Elders. I got a few packages of gum and poprocks, which was great. We did get new Elders on Wednesday for our zone, but none of them moved into our room. It's just me and my kasama for now. It's interesting seeing the new eleders adjust and realizing that I was them only 24 days ago! A lot has changed since then. They have a lot of questions, and it's fun to help them out.

Unfortunatley, no I won't be able to call on Christmas. At least, they haven't told us otherwise. It's good to know that I'll be able to call you soon after though. I like the idea of a disposable phone, so if it'll work, go ahead and do that! Whatever I don't answer in this e-mail, I will try to answer in a letter today. I've written back Hunter, Jamie, Dad, and Grandma so let them know that I'll send that out today. It's hard to reply to your email in a new body because I forget what was said.

I heard about those crazy winds yesterday from the guy we have to report to for service!! Sounds so crazy. I'm glad to hear it didn't affect anything at home. I'm going to get off now, but I will try to write more later. I have a few more minutes so I can log on this afternoon. I don't know if I'll have time to write Logan back in an email so could you get me his address?? Thank you.

I can't think of much that I need right now. I do need some new waterproof shoelaces though because mine have frayed for some reason. I've thought of other things but I can't remember! I'm going to try to send my memory card home with this next letter so be looking out for that. I'll try to write a litte more later today.

Hope you have a great day, and everything is A-ok!

Mahal Kita,

Elder Garett Smith