1st letter from Elder Stallings, July 30th 2011

Hey everyone!

These first three days have been insane. It's been a little overwhelming. The first day we were just herded around like sheep. There were about 600 new missionaries on my check-in day. Only 3 from Georgia. I ran into a lot of my friends the first day. It was so great to see them all in here, doing the same thing, preparing to serve. It was hard remembering to call them Elder rather than their first names. The spirit of this place can't be missed. Everywhere you go and everything you do is accompanied by The Spirit. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming. We went to meet our district in the classroom that we will be learning Tagalog in for the whole two months. As soon as we walked in, we were thrown into the language. Our teacher, Brother Mansfield, spoke nothing but Tagalog. That's how it has been the whole time. They are doing this as part of the new learning program. We are the first to have this new program. They think it will work better if we are always immersed in the language. It is challenging to try and interpret everything he is trying to teach using no english. It's working though. I'm amazed at how much we've already learned in just two and a half days. We have already learned how to pray and bear our testimonies. Yesterday, our second day, we were already required to teach an "investigator" in Tagalog. This was very difficult. We knock on the door, greet her, but we don't even know how to ask if we can come in. So we stand at the door, blank-faced and stupid. Other experienced speakers in the hall had to whisper to us what to say. Although it was somewhat of a failure, it was a good experience to get the feel for what goals we need to reach. We teach her again today... Round two of humiliation. I am getting humbled very quickly. My time is almost up. That went way too fast. I miss you guys already! I hope everything is great! I have already grown so much. I am very blessed to be here.

Love,

Elder Stallings