((From the balance of July 2013 letters))
((Still in the MTC)) July 17... This week we're teaching two new investigators (both our teachers) and it's going pretty well. My kasama and I have a goal to ditch our written script for lessons next week and just teach with whatever Tagalog we know. The training wheels are coming off! This week started out super rough. Our first lesson with Sister Abigail went really poorly and my kasama and I got super discouraged. Luckily we have really great teachers that helped us a ton, and it's only gotten better from there. We thought Sister Abigail would be the easier investigator, but it turns out Brother Anthony has been, and we're always really excited to teach him. The missionaries who came in 2 weeks before me went proselyting this week (so that will be me in 2 weeks) and they were all really jazzed about it, which made me really excited to get out as well. It's been raining/thunderstorming almost every day which I love.
The batch of Filipino missionaries that just left on Wednesday loved Sister Jensen and I so much because of our American-ness. It was great. This group of sisters came up to us really timidly and said "Um.. excuse me... can I get your e-mail?" and we said "sure!" and when they got it, they practically skipped away giggling and waving the piece of paper with our e-mails on it in the air. It definitely made our day. The elders all wanted pictures with us before we left and they drew us pictures and it was so sweet. These people are really amazing, and I'm really excited to go serve them and get out of this MTC. Ha.
Today a huge new batch of missionaries came and we helped welcome them. There are missionaries here going to Taiwan, Singapore, India, and Hong Kong! And the Philippines of course. It's super crowded here now though. Welcoming the new ones was so fun, but so weird to think we aren't the new ones anymore.. Being at the MTC is the weirdest. It feels like this is the only life I've ever lived, the only place I've ever been, and like these are the only people I've ever known... I can't explain it. I love (almost) all the people here, and it'll be sad to say good-bye to a lot of them when we leave the MTC.
((July 25th 2013))
I'm getting a little more used to the food, and the fruit here is awesome. If I don't like what they're serving I just eat rice and whatever soup they have that day, so it's all good. The best stuff they have here are these vegetable pancake things that are delightful, the breaded fried fish, and the soft serve. Ha.((of course they have soft serve, her favorite treat ever)) Last week I tried Milkfish, the national fish of the Philippines, which was actually super tasty. I'll get to my health in a moment. :) We don't really get a chance to adjust to the heat and humidity because the MTC is sobra airconditioned. My kasama ((Companion)) and I sit outside a lot because it's freezing inside, but we're always in the shade. I sleep super well most nights because my brain is so tired, and the beds are super nice. Luckily, we didn't get any new roommates when the new batch came in, so there's still just the 4 of us in our room. I haven't really learned much about the Manila mission actually. I know they get to go to the temple once a transfer, which is great. The Quezon City missionaries are super jealous of us because we have the island, so that's cool. That's pretty much all I know... Oh I heard from missionaries that went proselyting last week and the week before that nobody wears clothes, so that's interesting... I can't believe it's already our turn to go proselyting! I'm excited, but I'm really sobra nervous because of the language. Most missionaries will just make you pray and testify, and I think I can do that... at least I hope I can!
I'm getting a little more used to the food, and the fruit here is awesome. If I don't like what they're serving I just eat rice and whatever soup they have that day, so it's all good. The best stuff they have here are these vegetable pancake things that are delightful, the breaded fried fish, and the soft serve. Ha.((of course they have soft serve, her favorite treat ever)) Last week I tried Milkfish, the national fish of the Philippines, which was actually super tasty. I'll get to my health in a moment. :) We don't really get a chance to adjust to the heat and humidity because the MTC is sobra airconditioned. My kasama ((Companion)) and I sit outside a lot because it's freezing inside, but we're always in the shade. I sleep super well most nights because my brain is so tired, and the beds are super nice. Luckily, we didn't get any new roommates when the new batch came in, so there's still just the 4 of us in our room. I haven't really learned much about the Manila mission actually. I know they get to go to the temple once a transfer, which is great. The Quezon City missionaries are super jealous of us because we have the island, so that's cool. That's pretty much all I know... Oh I heard from missionaries that went proselyting last week and the week before that nobody wears clothes, so that's interesting... I can't believe it's already our turn to go proselyting! I'm excited, but I'm really sobra nervous because of the language. Most missionaries will just make you pray and testify, and I think I can do that... at least I hope I can!
Alright so here's what happened this week:
On Sunday I got all kinds of barfy, which was sobra hindi mabuti. My kasama and I had to miss a DVD of an Elder Holland talk, which was sad. Sister Borg and Sister Willson (i'll send pictures in a jiff) were so helpful and they got the nurse/priesthood to come help me, and I was all better by Monday. There's been a bug going around the MTC, so we're cracking down on hand washing. On Sunday morning we had a leadership council meeting and one of the new district leaders in the Filipino branch says "there are no problems in our district, except most of the elders are more comfortable using water when we poop" in front of everybody. I was dying. The MTC president kindly told them that they are missionaries now, and they will have to adjust, and when they get home, they can chew gum as much as they want. Hahaha.
This Tuesday was the best day of my time here ((in the MTC)). In the morning there was a fire drill that wasn't actually a drill and my teacher says "okay, nobody panic, what is the Tagalog word for fire? It's sumog! And what do you say when there's a fire? Tulong! Now we can evacuate" So if we died in that fire, at least we would have known the Tagalog words for what killed us! hahaha It was just a small fire on the second floor of one of the buildings, it wasn't serious. That afternoon we taught our investigator, Brother Anthony, and it was incredible. We've been teaching him very slowly about the Atonement, repentance, forgiveness and the symbolism of baptism. Anyways, we were teaching him about the Holy Ghost and binyag (baptism), and it was the first time I've felt the spirit really strong in a lesson. My kasama was killing it in the Tagalog department and when I said "Brother Anthony," to start the baptism invitation, I almost started crying because of how strong the spirit was, and he committed to baptism! Holla! Then he said "maganda ang buhay walang kasalanan", and translated "life is beautiful when we can be forgiven of sin". How neat is that?! My kasama and I came out of that appointment ridiculously happy, it felt so great!! Now we're not sure what to teach him though... haha. I know it's just a fake investigator, but it makes me pumped for the real thing. That night we had a really great devotional from Elder Ardern of the seventy where he taught us about the power we have as missionaries, and it was very motivational. One of my favorite things he and his wife shared was a quote that was something like "Heavenly Father entrusts a testimony to those who will share it". That's pretty neat. A testimony is a gift, and we have a responsibility to share it! Lucky a mission is a pretty easy place to do that. Ha.
In the new batch of missionaries that came, there are these three Elders from Fiji and Tonga who are SOOOOO good at volleyball and it's so fun to play with them. That's another reason I haven't been running. They let me set for them and I ran a one with one of the elders, and I had forgotten just how wonderful it feels when you set someone a quick set and they just hammer it. It was awesome-az. Oh p.s. I'm picking up on all the Aussie slang here. They just add 'az' to the end of everything like Utahns add way to the beginning of everything, and it sounds like they're swearing, but they're really not, and it's great. It's great-az.
My Kasama!!
Mahal mahal mahal kita,
Sister Jones
My Kasama!!
The Lehi District
my district ((not in order of the picture)): Sister Jensen, Sister Atuake, Sister Moimoi, Sister Feinga, Sister Faka'osi, Elder Proudfit, Elder Lang Siu, Elder Jo, and Elder Seau
my district ((not in order of the picture)): Sister Jensen, Sister Atuake, Sister Moimoi, Sister Feinga, Sister Faka'osi, Elder Proudfit, Elder Lang Siu, Elder Jo, and Elder Seau
((Aug 2 letter))
On Tuesday we had a good-bye devotional for the departing class, and it was sad! At the beginning we sang songs as classes, and the Tongans sang a song of their own, and it was beautiful! Someone here said you will find no more beautiful voices than islander voices, and after being here I'd have to agree! The departing class, who we were really close to, sang How Great Thou Art, and they sang the first verse in English, second in Tongan, third in Samoan and fourth in Tagalog. The reaction of the Filipino missionaries to the class singing in Tagalog was priceless. They were so happy they were literally bouncing, and they all started taking pictures and crying and it was adorable.
I saw my first hunstman spider this week!! It was in the gym and it was just a baby one, it was probably a bit bigger than a silver dollar, but it ran around all #@%!**# crazy! Forgive my inappropriate missionary language, but there's really no other way to describe it... Haha yikes.
Proselyting was..... I don't really know how to describe it. My companion was named Sister Cava from Fiji, she had been in the field a grand total of 4 weeks! We had a member with us too, and she saved us! We taught a less-active family first, two adorable little girls greeted us, and even though they really didn't have anything world-wise, they were so happy, and so excited to see the missionaries. We taught them and their grandparents about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon and about repentance. My kasama just had me testify and pray, and it went pretty well. These people really didn't have any possessions besides their clothes, but they did have a picture of Christ and of the Salt Lake temple, which made me super happy and melted my heart. I really can't describe the living condition of these people because there is nothing to compare it to in Utah, but their whole 'house' could have easily fit inside my bedroom. It made me really grateful for my life. We also taught a member about missionary work and reading the scriptures, and she was really nice, and she helped me with the language when I tried to talk. On the jeepney ride back, I tried to place a Book of Mormon but.... no luck. When I talked to the lady I could tell she felt uncomfortable and she would answer all my Tagalog in English, and she didn't want the Book of Mormon. My kasama said next time to just give it to her and not let her give it back, so I'll do that! I was bummed she didn't take it, but I was happy I tried! After the day was over, I didn't really want to come back to the MTC because it's so stressful here, but I was also really worried about actually living in Manila for 18 months. I'm hoping it will click and I'll fall in love with this place like everyone else who comes here, but it didn't exactly click on Wednesday. I don't want to sound complain-y, I'm just being honest.. I've laughed a lot this week, and that has really helped me because I do love to laugh.
((August 9 Letter))
I leave this Wednesday sometime in the morning to go to my mission, my P-day will be Mondays now, so I don't think you'll hear from me until next Monday, then the Mondays after that.
It was hot and humid both times we've gone proselyting (it was hotter this time) but it definitely wasn't unbearable, this is their colder season, so most of the time it's not too bad. We also always have the lovely air conditioned MTC to come back to, so we'll see how it is without that. They sell plastic shoes everywhere here that all the missionaries wear that are supposedly super comfy, so I'll probably get myself some of those.
A typical day at the MTC is just 16 hours of studying. We teach one investigator (our teachers) per day, or we'll teach a less-active, or a referral or a former investigator. We do a computer language program called TALL, we do grammar lessons with our teachers, talk about the lessons and how to teach them, and just study. We also have gym every day. They also give us buttery sweet delicious snacks every 2 hours so we're all getting fat. Apparently that's the idea since most missionaries lose weight in the field.
I don't really know what to write about this week! On Sunday the MTC president's wife pulled my companion and I aside and just asked us how proselyting was. She said it's really hard at first, but if we open our hearts, we will come to love it here and we won't want to leave at the end of our mission. She seriously spoke all the thoughts of our hearts, it was incredible and she is the sweetest lady. She looks like she could be the next relief society general president, and I wish I could just take her with me everywhere I go. On Tuesday we had a devotional by Elder Larry Echo Hawk (neatest name ever) from the Philippines area presidency, which was really good.
Proselyting this week was good. We went to the Quezon City North Mission, and my companion was named Sister Jones! Ha. So it was Sister Jones, Sister Jensen, Sister Faka'osi and me in a group. We tried to teach 2 people that weren't home then taught 2 less actives. Both of them lived on the 'mountain' which is just this area in the mission that is on the side of the mountain, and it's a lot more province-y than Manila. The first lesson we taught was difficult because the kids were noisy and dogs kept coming in and out of the place they lived, but I still felt like the sister was happy we visited her. The second lady we visited was named Maria. She was in her 60's and she was so sweet. She wouldn't let us take off our shoes in her house, and when we were kind of hesitant to speak, she said (in English) "Don't be shy, just DO YOUR BEST" and she was so encouraging. She talked about the blessings that had come in her life through faith and she was emotional about it, and you could feel that she really has a testimony and a lot of knowledge about the gospel. The only reason she doesn't come to church is that it is so far away and she can't afford to get there. She was such a nice lady though. It started raining super hard when we were visiting her and it was so loud against the tin roof, but I was so glad to see that the roof didn't leak on her, and I thought the sound was beautiful. We took two jeepneys and a tricycle to get back to the church, and Sister Jones and I had to sit side-saddle on the motorcycle on the tricycle, which was sketchy, but it made me think "Holy moley I'm a missionary in the Philippines right now! I'm actually here! How many people get to ride side-saddle in a skirt on a tricycle up a mountain in the Philippines in their lives?" So that was pretty neat. Sister Jones was so nice, I wish she could be my trainer! Ha. I can't believe I'll meet my trainer in only a couple days! I'm really excited/nervous. Sister Jones told us the first couple weeks are really hard, because you don't understand anyone and you're getting into the swing of things and getting used to living here, but she said once you get over the first bit, it just gets better and better.
I will be sad to leave the MTC because of how clean and air-conditioned and nice it is, and because I've become really close with a lot of the sisters here, and many of them are not going to Manila. Pero, I'm excited to start doing actual missionary work and start bringing the good news of the gospel to people's lives!