Dear Family and Friends,
How crazy!! This Halloween is the very first holiday that I will be missing! So I hope you all had a very fun Halloween. My kasama and I dressed up in Halloween colors (sort of). I'll attach some pictures.
First of all, to Dad, good luck on your Ironman this weekend!! I've been thinking about you a lot! I know you'll do great. I wish I was there to cheer you on, but I'll cheer you on from here. I also wish I could do all the fun things you're doing in Florida, but I think missionary work is just a little bit more important for me at the moment ;) Mom, I'm glad your surgery went well! Hopefully the other one will go well too if you have to get it. I've been thinking about you too, and praying for you!
So the biggest thing that happened this week was probably the fact that one of the Twelve Apostles, NEIL L. ANDERSEN, came to visit us here in this little old MTC in the Philippines. Want to know the best part? We got to shake his hand. Oh yes, we did. It was awesome!!! Seriously best part of my week, probably even my whole stay so far.
If anyone still talks to Aaron Gogl, tell him that I've found his twin. Not in looks, because that's still Vector from Despicable Me, but in personality. It's freaky. They are so much alike, it's weird.
The weeks are going by much faster now. It seems like I just emailed you all a day or two ago. It's crazy. Tagalog is going fairly well. However, it is so very complicated sometimes. Holy moly. And it's very hard to sing in. I was the chorister for the devotional on Sunday night, and I hade to conduct the Tagalog songs. Let me tell you, it is not easy to conduct when you don't even know what you're saying. But I don't think I made too huge of a fool out of myself, so we're all good! Speaking of music, that is one of the things I really miss. Luckily, I've decided that I don't really care who hears my voice anymore, so my kasama and I sing all the time. Now Sister Clark is a good singer. I just kind of blend in underneath her voice. But it's great. The Elders in our district will join in sometimes too. We have very musically talented group here. We try to sing whenever we can find a spare minute, which is not very often, but it's still awesome. Try singing Joseph Smith's First Prayer to the tune of Come Thou Fount. It's awesome.
What else... We've had lots of sick girl this week, which is never good. Since my kasama and I are Sister Training Leaders, often time the girls will call us to see what they should do about it. One day, we sat with a girl for about an hour or so while her companion ate with the nurse, and while the nurse was checking on her. I'm really hoping that I don't get sick.
So next week should be super fun. First of all,we are going to be the senior batch here at the MTC. Crazy right? Second, it'll be our first week proselyting. That is going to be insane! I feel like I don't know enough to go out and try to teach actual people in a completely different language. Maybe it'll motivate me to study more. We'll see. I've heard that your companion that you do exchanges with lets you lead the lessons... I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do that when I can't talk to the people, but I'm sure the Spirit will help me know what to say.
We're had some great success this week with our 'investigators'. It's been kind of crazy, seeing as we have an extra investigator, but Anna and Roy (our teachers) have been doing great. Roy is excited for the baptismal date that we've set for him, and Anna is progressing towards hers. We love teaching, and we're always excited to go in and teach. It's awesome!
What else... I love the Book of Mormon!! This week, a group of us were reading the BoM, and we finished our chapter early. So we decided to share our favorite scriptures. That was an amazing experience. It's always cool to hear other peoples' testimonies. I've also developed a new love for the Book of Mormon. We hardly get any time to read for ourselves here. We're always either studying for our investigators, or reading with a group, or there's not enough time with everything else we have to do. So the few minutes that I get to read a chapter or two for myself are great. I also got a Tagalog BoM, and it is fun to read it side by side with the English one. It may take waaaay longer to do my reading that way, but it makes me feel a little bit better to see how much I have learned so far.
The food this week have been fairly normal. We eat lots of fish, and still lots of rice. My portions of rice have slowly been getting smaller and smaller. I'm thinking they'll end up being nonexistent at some point... We had mangoes for the first time today, and I almost died. They were that good. We've also had apple pears (Mom, that's for you), and of course I love those!!
Well, this email is probably long enough, and at the moment, I can't think of anything else that I did this week. For anyone who has time, go read Alma chapter 32 in the Book of Mormon. It's all about faith, and it is a fantastic chapter. I love it. I love all of you! Thank you all for the emails and thoughts and prayers! Have a fantastic week!!
Love,
Sister Wilwand
No comments:
Post a Comment