All he's wrote so far...

April 21st
Kamusta from the MTC!!!!!
Kumusta! thats hello for those of you that don't speak tagalog ;) Howare things? Things are progressing well here, Tagolog is hard, but I'mworking on it. I've almost got my testimony down and am working onpraying in tagalog. its kinda fun to hear all the different languagesspoken around campus and to speak to someone that has no idea whatyou've just said. but, before i forget im going to have to send home allmy silk ties cause in the phillipines theyll get ruined. which meansi'll have to send home all, and i mean all of my yies cause theyre all100% silk. so because of that im going to need more ties before i leavethe mtc. i'll wear the silk ones in the mtc, but i'll need more befor ihead to manilla. but anyway the last few days have kinda run together.wednesday was kind of an interesting experience cause it wasnt exactlywhat i expected. but i am ajusting. i love my companion even though heis a bit different. elder gillett is from leavenworth, kansas and issomewhat of a deep thinker and has no problem enlightening us to histhoughts. a lot of the time he just wont shut up! but he is teaching mepatience, unwillingly on my part, but he is making me be patient. he hasa tendency to take forever to do everything. he seems to believe thatholding the door for the collumn of people is necessary instead of thecustomary few people, but i love him. we work farely well together andare still learning to work together. there are 9 missionaries, soon tobe 8 missionaries in our district cause one of our elders is going hometoday to treat his depression. he's a great elder and we all home thathe will treat his illness and return to the mtc in the near future. wehave 8 soon to be 7 elders and 1 sisters. when you sit in class for 10hours a day, you get to know each other well. we all like to worktogether and are progressing. but other than that, theres not much toreport. im working hard to do my best, i've never worked this hard in mylife! but as hard as im working and as much as I want to sleep i knowthat this is what i want to do and where i want to be. yesterday wasprobably the best day of the week, not only because of taking thesacrament, but i also got to take a much needed 2 hour nap :D. Alam kona ang simbahan! (I know that the church is true!) Hope everything iswell. oh btw christie, i got your package today, thank you so much!!!!!!but you'll get a letter later this week with more details and thanks.take care of yourselves and if you dont have my address, email my dad at c.beckstead@comcast.net and he'll give it to you cause i love gettingmail....and packages too :D. take care. Love,Elder B