MTC Week 6-last week!!

Hi mom. Tagalog is going good, I've learned a lot but there's still a lot to learn. Should be interesting to be thrown into it. The past week has flown by super fast. I'm pretty excited to get out of here, it's gotten smaller every day. We'll see how this flying business is. Hopefully it's not too bad. Hannah looks so cute! She'll probably be walking and talking when I get back. That's awesome. I got TWO super awesome packages this week. The first was from Kerri. You saw the video when her friend Mindy gave it to me. It had 1400 ORANGE TIC TACS! And some awesome pens that I can use in my scriptures that don't bleed through. That was awesome. Plus the Mountain Dew you sent in your package were super good. Almost as good as green label. I still have like 12 left, but I can make those disappear pretty fast. The Christmas Crack will be gone today too, of course. I'm just a little sick this week, tis the season. No snow yet, but it's been raining pretty hard the last few nights. I'm excited about the next week. Big changes from here I'm sure. One thing that we've been working on this week as a district is virtue. It actually helps a lot. Just staying focused and having making sure I only have good thoughts has made the week go so much smoother. Hope Everyone is doing good, I miss you all.

Love Elder Banister 2

MTC week 4

This is Kolby's reaction after he took off the plate and there was NOTHING inside. 

Hi mom, it's been a pretty good week. Elder Gary E. Stevensen came and spoke to us and it was broad cast to all the mtcs. And Brayden emailed and said he saw me so that was pretty awesome. I'm having a little trouble not pounding some elders into the ground. Some of the crap they do here, oh my gosh. I'm just too used to Preston or Dallin doing something stupid and then I can just smack them and they stop. Guess that's part of my training. Also tell Dallin and Tayla thanks for the cards and why didn't Preston write me one. These stupid scales say I gained 13 pounds from the last time I checked, but I'm starting to wonder if I gained some of that during the summer... Either way I'm pushing 160 now haha. There's another apostle coming on Thanksgiving so that'll be awesome. I also sing in the choir and it's only fun because Brother Eggett is the director. He has a lot of cool stories. My district is Elders Briggs, Matina, Dean, Barahona, Shaffer, and Chubbuck. Only elder Briggs and I are going to Quezon City. My new favorite words of the week are Gagamba, Manok, and nakakapagpabagabag.

Kolby's desk area. (I sent him a bunch of mormonads and pictures!)

Also something I've been studying in depth this week is Alma chapter 14. It's pretty powerful. Worst thing that happened this week was our whole zone had to go meet with mtc President Martino and get roasted because someone drew on our doors and we didn't wash it off or report it to him. That was terrible. I've started hiding Mountain Dew in bushes at night so in the morning it's Ice Cold. it's pretty awesome haha. I haven't gotten 1 of the packages, the one with my shoes I'm assuming, but that's okay. Another one of my friends came on Wednesday, his name is Nate Hart, he's super good at singing and it was nice to see a familiar face. Hopefully the ribs are good, but all I know is that when I get back, we're making some dutch oven turkey. I miss you all and hope everything is going good at home. Also thanks SOOO much for the caramels, those taste amazing. 

Talk to you in a week
        
Elder Banister 2

MTC week 3

Provo, Utah temple across from the MTC

Mural from the MTC

I'm doing well, I'll email you later today, I just wanted to check what you sent. We go to the temple in the morning on p days. I'll Email for real later. Love you

Alright I tried to share some pics in the photos section, I hope it worked. I hate technology, I'm so glad that I don't have to have a phone during my mission. It took me like 20 minutes to try and order a mission shirt on this stupid Ipad. The food never disappoints, I eat like 3 plates a meal and it's awesome. Elder Matina, a Samoan elder in my room, and I always go get more. My favorite thing so far is hard to say, there's been a lot that's good. Plus they have the blue powerade and it's awesome. Sometimes I mix that and mountain dew and it's sooo good. But enough about food. I got a package from the Stolps earlier this week and I have a new favorite tie now. I've worn the same one for the past 5 days I think. Grandma and Grandpa also sent me a card and that was awesome. When you send the package can you send me another shirt? like my long sleeve white wrestling one. Lightning during exercise time gets intense and my shirts reak afterwards. A typical day here is wake up, Breakfast, study, exercise, shower, Lunch, Class, Dinner, Class again, Bed, Repeat. It goes by pretty fast which is nice. I hope everything is going good at home. It's starting to get colder here. Another thing you can send if you can find one is a bit to fit the super weird head on these screws. I'll send a picture of it. It took me like an hour to get four of them out with some push pins. Oh, and that's another thing you can send is push pins. And maybe a bunch of orange tic tacs. I ate all the ones Kerri gave me haha. I haven't gotten sick yet so don't worry. I'm learning Tagalog just fine too. We've already had to do our first TRC in Tagalog. That was pretty stressful. Some words I have to try and say like 15 times before it sounds how it's supposed to. Like pananampalataya. That's the word for faith. Anyways, I hope everything is good there. Also you can send me my green label mountain dews, that would be super awesome. I'm through about half my supply that I brought. Love you all.

Love, Elder Banister 2

MTC district in front of Philippines flag

Kolby finding treasures behind the wall plates!!

Note on back of the wall plate

Elder Matina

MTC drop off

We took Kolby to the MTC on October 24th 2018. It was so hard to say good-bye! We still miss Logan so much and now the hole in our hearts seems to have grown. He was so happy to be there though, and so excited about his suitcase full of over 60 bottles of Mountain Dew. He is ready to go, he is ready to learn and he is prepared to do this work!!!