Sister Danai Sirrine: June 2013

Sunday, June 30, 2013

New MTC Address

From June 22.......Also, I have a different mailing address for the MTC

Sister Danai Sirrine
JUL31 PHI-OLO
2005 N 900 E Unit 18
Provo, UT 84604-1793

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.

Monday, June 24, 2013

June 22

Dear Pamilya,

Thank you for your email Mom! I just told my kasama (companion) that story and she thought it was so funny. I love it when they'll say big anatomy terms! I know what you mean about thinking "oh I'll just go ask Danai...." I catch myself all the time thinking "Oh, I'll just text so and so..." or "Oh I should ask Mom..." and it's been hard not to have a phone to check the time! (Which by the way, I need a watch sent to me. I want the brown one that is in the first or second drawer in my jewelry box....I hope that it's not dead.)

So yeah, the first day was kind of a blur. We got sent to our classroom and our teacher was already talking in Tagalog. He never speaks English to us unless we ask him to translate a word for us. Let's just say we've gotten really good at saying "Ano po an ______ sa Ingles?" In my district, there are 8 sisters and 4 elders and all of the elders are 18 except for one and all the sisters are 19 except for 1. So I'm old!!! They didn't believe me at first when I said I was 21....one elder asked me when my birthday was to check.

After being in class for a few hours, we then had a big group teaching experience where they brought in investigators and let us talk to them and ask them questions. It was actually really frustrating because there were about 50 missionaries in the room and so the topic and conversation went everywhere so nothing really got done. Oh! And, when we met the MTC presidency, they told us that the special broadcast on Sunday will be at the Mariott center and all the apostles and Seventy will be there. AND the entire MTC is going there!!! They said this is the first time this has ever happened in MTC history so that will be neat. They've really been emphasizing our dress code for that day...very conservative since we'll be on world wide television.

Then, we were taught how to pray in Tagalog. We also were introduced to our first investigator that we had to teach night. Bawal notes. Bawal Ingles. (Notes and English forbidden) Yep. So we all panicked a little because what the heck were we supposed to teach her??? We only knew how to pray and we couldn't remember it! So all of my RM friends that told me I would have a few weeks to teach in English were WRONG. We had a day. We were taught how to bear our testimonies and then the commitment pattern. The words in Tagalog are super long and there are lots of p's and a's and k's so it is super hard to remember. For instance ipinanumbalik is restored. And saying the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a mouthful! We then went to our lesson and it was rough. We did good when we were practicing together but forgot so much when we were actually talking to her. I think that's to humble us and make us realize that we need the help of the Holy Ghost. We're supposed to teach again tonight and We're not really sure what we're supposed to teach because it's our P-day and we haven't learned new things. I'm pretty sure that Becca is going to have the same schedule as me becuase my schedule says Tagalog/Spanish on it so we'll have P-day on the same day which will be cool and we'll probably see each other.

My kasama is Sister Howlett and I love her! She's from Delta and trains horses and is very fun. She's kind of the opposite of me becuase she doesn't like school and rules and she only went to one semester of school and then decided to do independent study because she doesn't like the school setting. But I think that's good for both of us. We're in a room with 4 other girls so it really feels like girls camp. And we have those community bathrooms which is super exciting. But I guess I never had dorms for school so I get a chance as a senior in college! My kasama talks in her sleep which has been entertaining and yes, someone does snore but not too much so I haven't freaked out yet. And the food isn't that bad. The fruit is actually really good and they have Fuji apples here!! I've pretty much lived on them and honeydew and pineapple. They must cut a ton of those everyday. I've seen a lot of people that I know here. I also am playing a musical number on Sunday for Relief Society. One of the girls in my district plays the violin and grew up with a girl who I know from the BYU school of music and plays violin. The music major leaves for japan and they wanted to play something together and needed an accompanist. So of course I'm doing it :) And I'm pretty sure I'll be the Sacrament pianist. Yesterday we got to play kickball as a Zone which was so nice to get out of the classroom and not think about Tagalog. But you know, it's amazing to see how much the second week district knows so I'm sure that it will come. We just may have headaches for a few more days.

Well, I need to go study some more Tagalog for my lesson tonight. Everyone pray for the gift of tongues for me and my kasama....

Alam ko po na totoo po ang Simbahan ni Jesucristo ng mga banal sa mga Huling Araw!