Kumusta pamilya!
I can't believe that it's P-day again. It seriously feels like I just had p-day just a couple days ago. That's the weird thing about the MTC. Time. It flies by and drags on at the same time. And the days just mush together. It really is the hardest thing at night to try and remember what I did that day because the morning seems like such a long time ago. But it's good because it does go super fast at the same time.
Well this week I was sick for some of it. There's this miserable sickness going around the MTC and I was the first one in my zone to get it. I really thought I had strep throat but thank goodness I didn't! Unfortunately a few other sisters in my district got it and there's some others in my zone that have it now. The MTC isn't very fun when you're sick but you don't want to go back to your room and sleep because you'll miss so much!
This week we taught a lot of lessons. I don't even know how many. Some of them were really good and we were so excited when we got out of them. We taught the Restoration to one of our investigators and we did it without looking at the lesson plan that we had prepared and it went so well. Normallly we have to script out our lesson, otherwise my kasama doesn't really know what I'm saying and she gets lost and then I end up talking the whole lesson. But during that lesson, she taught a ton of it and understood everything I was saying. But just when you start feeling good about life, of course you have to be humbled (pride cycle). Yesterday and the day before were really discouraging for Sister Howlett becasue she didn't talk very much during our lessons and she just felt so frustrated because she doesn't feel like she is learning fast enough. Last night we went outside and just talked and prayed for a while because she was so frustrated. It's amazing how powerful prayer is and how comforting the spirit can be! We've been studying a lot about revelation through prayer and I really want to make an effort when I get home to make my life less busy so that I can be in a position to hear the spirit give me revelation. Something neat I read was that once we receive the Holy Ghost, we receive revelation because the spirit is a spirit of revelation. So really we are receiving revelation all the time, we just need to learn how to recognize it! Just before we went in, she said "I don't know why you postponed your mission, but I am really grateful you did." And I just got this feeling that she was one reason why I needed to postpone my mission. It was really neat.
But it really is amazing how much Tagalog we can speak in just 3 weeks! I was thinking about it and nowhere else could we have done this. If we'd taken Tagalog in high school we would be nowhere close to where we are right now. It's really amazing. But, we still are so limited in what we can say which has been really good for me. It's been good to have to teach what the gospel is very simply. It makes you think about what is the absolute most important thing you need to tell people. Having to articulate the gospel has been so good for me too. I've always known that the gospel is true but I've never really known how to explain it. It kind of just was! But my teachers here have shown us how to put my feelings and testimonies into words. I don't know if that made any sense at all but it really is hard to put a feeling into words.
On a different note, our teachers have been showing us pictures of the Philippines and some souvenirs they brought back and it made us all sooooo excited to go there!!! And one teacher explained to us how the bathroom works in the Philippines. Not real excited for that. But it was super funny when he was telling that to us.
So Dad, just so you know, in the Philippines, they say f's as p's and v's as b's. and vice versa. That's why family is pamilya and Philippines is Pilipines. Also Mom, that email that you sent me via dear elder of Jody's newsletter didn't came in 6 letters. So that day that I got them, my whole district was like "Holy cow! How many people do you have sending you letters????" So I laughed when it was just one letter that ran onto 6 pages :)
Also I read a really good article this week. It's called the fourth missionary and it basically shows how you can be the absolute best missionary you can be. But one part that really stood out to me was when it said that if we spend our time wishing life was different or how it was before, we are just choosing to be unhappy. The point of life is to change. We're all trying to be like Christ and that means we have to change. So whatever stage of life we are in, we should be happy in it and make it the absolute best that we can right then. And then when a new stage of life comes, we should never look back with regrets or wishes but look forward with anticipation. I thought that was really good not only for missionaries, but for all of us. Wherever we are, we're never going to be exactly right there ever again so we should make it the best it can be. And we should choose to be HAPPY, not unhappy. No matter how hard life is right then. It was really good!
Well, that's a pretty good summary of my week!
Mahal kita! (I love you!)
Sister Danai Sirrine
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