Kamusta po kayo pamilya at mga kaibigan ko!!!??? Pinaka Mahal po kita!!! Salamat po para sa ng Letters and Packages!
I
am so happy that I get to write home today! I feel like I have sooo to
much to say from the past week! It has gone by so fast I can't even
beleive it, but it has been such a great week and so much has
happened!!! First off, I get my flight plans of FRIDAY
(Buernes)!!!!! How is that even possible? So once I get them I will let
you know when I will be calling home on the 15th. 2 more weeks sa
MTC?! I literally don't know where the time went. I am going to miss it
here so much! Especially my district, zone and teachers, but I am beyond
excited! Last night Brother Trebas showed us a ton of pictures from his
mission and told us a bunch of stories. I got so excited! There is
just something about the Philippines that feels like home to me. I felt
homesick for the Philippines as I looked at the pictures. It really
does hold such a special place in my heart and I can't believe I am
going back in 2 weeks. I can't even imagine how special the Philippines
is going to be to me after my mission. I work so hard at the language
each day because I want so badly to be able to communicate with the
wonderful people of the Philippines. I want to understand their
problems and be able to help them by teaching them about the gospel. WE
HAVE LEARNED SO MUCH TAGALOG THIS WEEK! It is insane. Each day we
learn new vocab, conjegations (which there are like 50 and they are
all crazy), and sentence structures. It is a fun language though. I
decided it is the boss of all languages. It sounds pretty, yet asian,
yet islander, yet crazy. All the words are sooo long and you get to
change words if they don't sound right and people understand you. You
get to say 'po' all the time. It is so fun to speak when you actaully
know what you are saying. We have fun as a district saying dumb stuff
to eachother in Tagalog!
The district above us leaves on Monday.
It is going to be sooo hard to say goodbye to them. They have become
some of my very best friends and it is going to be wierd not to have
them! We already planned a roadtrip around the US to visit all the
sisters in our zone in 18 months. With them leaving that means our
districrt will be the oldest in our zone! We have to help all the missionaries with language
questions and all the other stuff! I can't believe we are already at
that point! It flies by.
So last Sunday was the Leadership Training broadcast for the Church
that we got to attend. Hopefully some of you watched it! It was so
awesome! It was such a cool experience to be in the presence of the 12
apostles. They are such powerful people. Just being near them
increased my testimony. I love the focus of love. We all just need to
love those around us. That is the most important part of missionary
work. Not the language, not memorizing scriptures or giving perfect
lessons, but teaching with love and showing love to everyone around
you. The morning before the broadcast we were outside our building that
we have class in and we see 4 cars of the sidewalk surrounded by
police. It was the cars of Monson, Eyring, Uchtdorf, and Packer. I'll
send a picture! We were all freaking out! So we went into our class and
all huddled around the window. There were 7 girls around one tiny
windon trying to see the prophet. AND WE SAW HIM! We saw Monson,
Holland, Packer, and Nelson! It was better than seeing any celebrity!
They were so happy and cute with eachother. Nelson helped Monson into
his car and they were chatting. I love knowing that they are people
too. Don't worry my Kasama got pics. I'll try to send them!
I got to meet my mission president and his wife last saturday
night! I already wrote home about it, but I love them so much! They are
such amazing people! I know I will be well taken care of. You wanted me
to tell you their conversion story mom. It's really long, but
basically President Guanzon got a job over seas and he was scared his
family was going to fall apart because of it. He has seen this happen
to many families. So he prayed for a long time that his family would be
okay and the instant he stood up from his prayer there was a knock of
the door. It was the missionaries. They told him they should be
heading home, but they felt impressed to knock on his door. They
answered many of his questions and before he left over seas his entire
family was baptized. It was the last week for one of those missionaries
and to this day president Guanzon is still trying to find that
missionary to tell him how much he changed his life. They were just so
awesome! And all the people in my district that are going to Legaspi are
so awesome! I am so excited to serve with them in Legaspi! Me and
Sister Christensen are crossing our fingers that we will be companions
maybe toward the ends of our missions! We love each other and get along
so well! Oh and my mission opens on MONDAY!
Those of us going to Legaspi and other new missions are going to
celebrate! We are so excited! Our goal for Legaspi is to make it a
temple mission! We want enough members and enough members with a desire
to attend the temple to be able to have one built there in the future!
And then we all want to get married there haha.
This week on Tuesday we had an AWESOME devotional. Sister Perry
spoke. She wrote "As Sister's in Zion" and many of the childrens
songbook songs. She is such an amazing lady. At the end of her
speaking all the missionaries at the MTC sang "As sister's in zion/
armies of Helaman" The girls sang the missionary version of "as sister's
in zion" while the boys sang "Armies of Helaman." Some parts came
together and it was the most powerful thing I have ever been apart of.
Everyone was crying. Even me. It was so amazing to look around and
think that everyone there are one in purpose and they were all
missionaires. It is my new favorite song. Along with "I'll go where you
want me to go." I love being a missionary!!!!
Last night was a little rough. So me and sister Christensen have a
really hard investigator named Jay. We found out earlier this week that
two of his children died and so he thought they went to hell and he
won't pray and his wife hates mormons and the list goes on and on. We
thought we had the perfect lesson for him- Moroni chapter 8 about
children and baptism and the age of accountability, and then the plan of
salvation and how he HAD to pray to know if these things were true.
They whole time he looked uninterested and he kept asking us questions
that had nothing to do with anything. It was SO HARD. I wanted to
cry. I want to help him so bad, but when he asks these questions I am
not prepared for I can barely understand him and I don't know how to
answer in Tagalog. It is frustrating. He did tell us that he wanted to
know truth though and I think he will pray before our next lesson. I
SURE HOPE SO! It is a humbling experience. It makes me work harder on
my Tagalog and knowledge of the Gospel.
I have many funny stories from this week. I don't know if this is
funny, but it's fun. So we have been playing four square all week and
it gets so heated! It is my new favorite thing. I want to start a four
square league when I get home...so if anyone is interested start
practicing. Funny line- Brother Trebas was explaining the difference
between specific and non specific uses on ng and ang and so he used
saying "A Gift of tongues" is different than saying "The gift of
tongues" and Elder Wilcox said "I would take either at this point."
Maybe you had to be there, but we all died laughing. (Oh by the way
what wife if our family off of from Archibald? Elder Wilcox is off of
Anne). Okay this is a good one. So Sister Howard is the wife of one of
the Counselors in our Branch Presidency and after meeting and stuff the
sisters in our district walk her to her car because President Howard
stays later. She has this fake cat that she likes to keep in her
windshield hahahahahahah HANNAH YOUNG. But she puts it away each time
she gets out of her car because she doesn't want people to think it is
dying in the hot car. She just likes to be able to see it when she
drives. We were laughing so hard. She is the greatest lady ever. She
is soooo sassy. She has been through a lot, but also had a wonderful
life. Her and brother Howard just tell us stories all the time and it
is great!
Dad! I can't believe you might get to go to the Philippines! That
would be awesome! You would love it and I would love for you to know
more about where I will be! I am jealous of the family trip to Maine! We
will have to go again to the same place. It sounds absolutely perfect!
I will need LOTS of pictures! I'm trying not too think too hard about a
family trip without me...it makes me too sad, but then again I get to
go to the Philippines! Thanks for all the letters and packages! I love
them more than you know! Seriously reading a letter from home makes my
day 100x better. It makes me happy to know you haven't forgotten about
me because you really do start to feel like you are in a bubble at the
MTC.
I really need Zoe's address! Please send it to me in a Dear Elder ASAP!
James leaves on Monday!
I will miss seeing him around! I usually see him at least twice a day.
It is nice to talk to him and see a face from the past. I never see
anyone else anymore which is a bummer, but I love seeing the people in
my zone so it's all good!
Well I'm totally out of time! I'll try sending pictures! MAHAL KITA!!!!! KITAKITS!!!
-Sister Gardner
No comments:
Post a Comment