June 29, 2013

Dear pamilya,

Thanks for the news on how everyone is doing!  Tell Ali she needs to be careful! But I'm super glad that Granny seems to be doing better.  I know how good it feels to be able to run your own errands after not being able to for a while.  How was Becca's farewell talk?  And the farewell?  I'm so excited for her to come to the MTC this week!!!  You should write me what time she is supposed to be dropped off and I'll try to just be happening to walk by.  If you send me a Dear Elder letter, it is delivered to me the same day it is written so you should do that because i can't check this email again until next week.  That might be against the rules but my kasama said that it would be fine.  Tell Becca there is laundry stuff here so she doesn't need to bring it. 

Well, just so you know our second lesson in Tagalog went soooooo much better than our first lesson.  It was amazing to see the difference in just one day.  And our investigator was super nice and i think she understood our horrible broken Tagalog.  We've now taught four times in Tagalog and it's not really getting easier but it is at the same time.  If that makes sense.  It's actually kind of good that I have a language barrier because it forces us to explain our lesson in VERY simple terms.  Which is what the gospel is, but we forget that and want to explain EVERYTHING about it when really we should just be explaining the basic fundamentals.  So that's been the good thing about Tagalog.  I am very good at praying and bearing my testimony in Tagalog.  Funny thing is that the other day we woke up and one of the sisters in my district said that I was talking in my sleep one night and I was bearing mytestimony in Tagalog.  And I've been dreaming Tagalog words and sentences every night which is actually kind of exhausting.  Apparently my subconscious is really worried about learning the language or something.  But yesterday it finally started to click.  we learned a few sentence structures and it made all the phrases we've been learning so much easier to understand and remember.  But now we got two new investigators  that we will have for the rest of my MTC time and we'll be teaching four lessons a week.  I think we'll do okay, I've already seen the gift of tongues happen to all of us.  And let me tell you, the gift of tongues is not an instantaneous thing.  But it has definitely been given to us. 

On Sunday the entire MTC went to the world wide broadcast and it was so amazing!  I was thinking while I was there "I wish i was a normal person and could do the missionary work in at home!" But then I remembered that I'll have my whole life to do that.  Just kind of funny.  Also, the entire 1st presidency and quorom of the 12 was on the MTC campus that whole day and we saw a couple of them.  Oh! And Elder Hales was at the Marriott center which is the first time he's been here on the MTC campus.  And on Sunday I did end up playing a musical number for Relief Society (we have combined Relief Society with the entire MTC every week) 

It's kind of ironic because the classroom that we are in all day is SOOOO cold.  And so I'm always wishing that it could be warmer but I know that in 5 weeks I'm going to be wishing I was back in this classroomm. 

I've already learned so much about the gospel.  It's interesting to have to think about it for other people, not yourself.  My whole life it's been about how it can help me but now I have to think about the most simple way to say it to help other people.  You should all try that.  Explain the restoration in 3 mintues to someone.  It's hard!!!  I love my district and I love my kasama.  My favorite word to say is pananampalataya which means faith. 

I have to go but Alam ko po na totoo po ang ebanhelyo ni Jesucristo! 

Mahal kita!

Sister Sirrine

I forgot to say that one of the sisters in the MTC came up to me and said that she kept staring at me because she recognized me from somewhere.  And then she realized that i looked like Rapunzel from Tangeled.  Haha that totally made my day!  And my blow dryer broke on like day 3.  I'll try and send pics next week maybe.