Elder Payne in Baguio: Halfway Done in the MTC- Week 3 ends

So this week has been crazy! I'll start off with Sunday. This Sunday was the day where we were assigned new district leaders, zone leaders, and district training leaders. You don't know if you have been assigned until you are in the meeting. So my companion and I got to the room we have met in for sacrament since the first week we got here about ten minutes early. When we showed up the lights were off and the door was closed which was weird so we started searching the floor for other people in my zone. We didn't find anyone on our floor and sacrament was starting soon so we just went to the 6th floor and started checking every room on each floor. We didn't find them so we decided to just go back to the room we normally meet in and just have our own meeting. We walked into our room to find a note on the board that said we were meeting in a different building... We rushed to our meeting and showed up like 15 minutes late. When I walked in one of the Elders sitting in front of me turned around and told me I was made a district leader! I had showed up late to my own calling... I thought that was pretty funny!

So that was Sunday, then Tuesday my district was assigned to help with the MTC tours that are beginning to happen. We were assigned a three hour shift that went straight through the devotional we had that night! It wouldn't have been a big deal expect two people in my district had auditioned and made it to play a musical number in that meeting for all the missionaries! They were still able to perform but the rest of my district couldn't even watch them! That was kind of sad but hosting was still way fun! I got to see all sorts of people and kids which I loved! Kids are just the best!!! I learned this week that Filipino children love to "hang out" with the missionaries and I can't wait for that! Any ways hosting for the tours was a lot of fun!

Then my district was assigned to help host on Wednesday for the new missionaries arriving in the MTC. We got 650 new missionaries Wednesday!!! It was crazy! In fact, they set up a new system where people would drop off their missionaries in the parking garage of T-4. It was weird but seemed to work pretty well paro hindi ko alam for sure. It was fun to meet all sorts of new missionaries! I definitely had some flash backs of when I got dropped off so that was strange. I had to miss half of my afternoon class for it which was a bummer since I still don't know Tagalog yet... Oh well! It was still a blast!

Then this morning my district was assigned to clean the Provo Temple which has been closed since I got here. It was an amazing experience! I was able to clean furniture, move marami furniture, move art work, and clean toys in the waiting room where kids wait to be sealed to their families. It was an amazing experience and that temple is just so beautiful! I can't wait to have an opportunity to do a session in it when it reopens next week! Also this week... we lost the older members of our zone, they flew out to the Philippines yesterday and they are probably still on a plane! I'm really going to miss them! They were really cool people! Any ways, its crazy to think I am half way done in the MTC! I really do love it here but each day I get more and more excited to be in the Philippines! Love and miss you all so very much!

Mahal,

Elder Payne