Kamusta!!
How was everyone's week?! Good I
hope! I can't believe it's already pday! That was a fast week---I'm 2
weeks in, 1/3 of my stay here at the MTC...now that's a crazy thought!
Sorry my email last week was a little spazztic. I'm still trying to
figure out how to effectively use all my time on pday, so hopefully this
week's letter will be a bit more organized. Oh, and please ignore my
spelling and grammar mistakes...I'm typing pretty fast to get everything
in.
First off, here's a schedule of a typical day, so you can refer to it if I ever mention a class or something...
Arise
Personal Study- 1 hour
Breakfast
Class Instruction with Brother Hong--3 hours
Lanugage study--1 1/2 hours
lunch
compaion study--1 hour
class instruction with brother oldroyd--3 hours
daily planning--1/2 hour
dinner
TALL (online lanugage study)--1 hour
gym- 50 minutes
prepare for bed
lights out at 10:30
So last week I told you that Elder Russell M. Nelson came to our Tuesday
devotional! It was amazing!! I just wanted to say something that he
said taht was super awesome. He said something to the effect of how
missionariares are prayed for all over teh world, but that we're also
being prayed for on the other side of the veil. Ancestors are just
praying for us missionaries to find their posterity so their work can be
done. So we have like a billion more prayers said on our behalf on the
other side, PLUS all the prayers from everyone on the earth now! Such a
neat thought! It seemed that the theme of, "ancestors praying for us and
being on our side," was a common theme from other devotionals we've had
as well. He also said that we can pray for our ancestors to help us and
pray to have their attributes and strenght throughout our mission. so
awesome!
On Thursday last week, (which is pday), I felt like my brain was
everyone. It was without doubt the most hectic day so far. There was so
much to do and so much to write, but so little time!! We went to the
temple after writing our emails, and it took my brain a while to calm
down, but it finally did. There is absolutely no place like the temple. I
know only the temple could bring me the peace and calm my brain the way
it did after such a hectic day. I love the temple!! We can choose to do
either a session or initiatroy. last week we did a session and i think
this week we'll be doing initiatory. It's defintely a highlight of my
week. :)
After the temple, we had class and guess who our teacher
was...marioneto!!! haha His real name is Brother Hong and he's our
actual teacher. I figured this would be the case, but it was still a
little werid at first to have our hiligaynon speaking investigator all
of a sudden be our teacher. haha but he is so amazing! he served in
Bacolod and he's hilarious. He is so spiritually in tune, and he tells a
lot about the Philippines and their culture. We don't have culture
classes like i thought we might, so i'm glad he tells us things. some
things he's told us for example: ano liwat means, "what? repeat?" in
Hiligaynon. But in the Philippines, they also just open their mouth
really wide to mean the same thing. I'll attach a picure if i can so you
can see. They also consider offering food to ANYONE, even if you don't
know someone, to be a kind gesture. so you decline twice, and if they
ask you a third time to eat with them, you know they're serious, and
then you say yes. Also, as a sign of respect for the elderly, when you
shake someone's hand, you keep holding it and put their hand to your
forehead. Brother hong told the Elders to do it to brother oldroyd when
he came later to teach. Elder Busselberg did so, and it was hiarious,
cuz brother oldroyd had no idea we knew that so he was pretty suprised.
Anyway, Brother Hong discussed with us the first night the importance of
planning and studying for our investigators. EVERYTHING is based around
our investigators. I've come to discover very quickly that missionary
work is completely selfless. Everything we think about and do is to help
our investigators with their needs and coming closer to Christ. Even my
personal study isn't for me--it's studying for the needs of the
investigator. and honestly, i don't think i have even 5 minutes in teh
day to think about myself...which is a good thing becuase i think people
my age are so self centerd, myself included, that it's no wonder they
send us out at this age! It's awesome!
Friday:
We
mainly studied today according to our schedule. Brotehr Oldroyd had us
read from Alma 18. We read the hiligaynon book of mormon alongside the
english one and had a good discussion about receiving revelations and
how to meet the needs of the investigators through the book of mormon.
Brother oldroyd is awesome. He's such a great teacher.
Saturday:
It rained and rained and I just thought about Sister Monson passing away on Friday
and how the angels were just crying buckets of tears. It's awesome to
think how many people are praying for him at this time aroudn the
world--I know we as missionaries pray for him in almost all our prayers,
and that's a lot of prayers in our day.
Brother Hong gave us a lesson about stress management. It was a
much needed lesson--we are constantly in motion with so much to do, and I
never feel like i'll have enough time to do it, so it was a good lesson
for me. We also played a filipino game called Handa Giyo (ready, go).
It's kind of like simon says only you DON'T want to match what the
person is doing. And ther's only three options of what you can do--hands
on hips, head, or one hand on your elbow. Hard to explain, but it was
fun! We had some good laughs. Elder Morgan would do these funny moves
when he got out. haha He's so funny...he's the one from Australia and he
thinks our american/utah jokes are so cheesy (which, they are). haha
He's also amazed at our accents. He's used to them now, but he said teh
first few days he would turn to elder templeton (form new zealand), and
just marvel with each other at our accents, especially during
testimonies sine it was such a serious setting yet we sounded so
different. I thought this was funny cuz i thought the same thing about
them! Their accents totally mesmerized me the first little bit (they
sound so proper! Especially Edler Templeton), but now i'm used to it. We
call them Elders Kiwi. They tell us all about their culture and how
it's similar/differnet from ours. I love it! Oh, it was funny cuz one
day Elder Morgan asked Sister Van Slooten one day how many suitcases we
had cuz we had so many clothes!! haha same number as you, elders! We can
just mix and match more. :)
That night we had a lesson with brother oldroyd, and it was pretty
overwhelming. We were assigned 2 new investigators, and we needed to
plan and translate a lesson by monday morning. Well, Sunday
we don't have the study time we do throughout the week, so I literally
had no idea when we would plan and translate our lesson. I was
also behind on my journal wriitng (somehting very importatnt to me), the
language was difficutl that day, and other ilttle things just added to
the pile of stress. I just wanted to cry. (but don't worry--I'll tell of
teh tender mercies in a minute). Luckiy gym was after and teh
headphones from uncle vance came that day (Thank you, Uncle Vance!! They
came just in time :) ), so I was able to watch the jospeh smith movie
while wroking out in 2M. i love that movie. plus emma smith is in it,
and you know how much I love her! That was teh first tender mercy.
Sunday:
music
and the spoken word was awesome!! the spirit is alwasy so strong when
the choir sings, and it just gives me the chills. i miss hearing thier
music so often but at least i get to hear them on sunday! I don't know what i'll do in teh philippines wehn we can't haev any music at all except our voices. haha
we sang, "the sisters of Zion," again...the song written by janice
kapp perry to the tune of, 'as sisters in zion' that's about sister
missionareis. tears welled in my eyes--there's something about singing
that with so many sister missionareis in one room! I know it's going to
be on her new cd, but i don't know when it'll come out. but when it
does, check it out! it's wonderful!
oh, look up Savior, Redeemer, of My Soul. It's such a GORGEOUS song! And i think it's on 17 miracles...
Our
companionship gave teh lesson in our district meeting on recognizing
the spirit. i was a bit nervous because i've never really given a lesson
before, and i usually have to have things written down word for word,
so i was really doing as our lesson was teaching, and relying adn
recognizing the spirit to know what to say and do. There was nothing to
fret about though because our lesson flowed so well, we ended right on
time, and there were such wonderful comments and the spirit was so
strong. I know the spirit will guide and help us in everything we do if
we just trust him! :)
Okay, so here's teh best part of the day...we went to Sunday
night devotional and guess who are guest speaker was.....MARY ELLEN
EDMUNDS!!!! Can you belieive it?!! I was freaking out inside. okay,
maybe a little outside too. I was exclaiming to my whole district how
she was teh first sister missionary with grandma in the Phiippines!!!
And it was so neat because she got up and told us that May 19th was her
fist full day as a missionary (which was the exact same day she was
speaking to us). She mentioned grandma by saying that 50 years ago, she
and her companion were the first sister missionareis in teh philippines,
and now there are 21 missions there. How awsome is that?! She was
absolutely HILARIOUS the entire time...i don't know how you didn't die
of laughter, grandma!! She talked about being selfless, and cultivating
an attitude of happiness and being optimistic in our work. It was such a
wonderful deviotional and i wish I could give you tons more detail
about it! But she told a story and I hope you recognize it grandma...
she said that you are her were teahcing a man in the philppines and were
telling teh story about jospeh smith. he loved it so much he had you
teach it aigan. and then again a thrid time. after the third time, he
asked, "well what happened to him?" she said it was teh hardest and most
painful thing to tell him that Jospeh Smith was murdered by people who
hated him and teh gsopel. Then he explained, "I would protect him with
my life if I was there." I get tears in my eyes just thinking of that
story! Do you rmember that expereince at all grandma?? I loved everytime
she said, "we" because I knew she was talking about YOU!! :)
After the devotional I booked it down to the front because i HAD to
talk to her. When I came up to her, i said, "Sister Smithen is my
Grandmother!!" She said, "OH! Oh my goodness, I love her! Tell her she
owes me a letter!" So grandma, you better write her a letter! Cuz i told
her you would! ;) She also asked who my mom/dad was, and I said Julie.
She siad," I just love Julie!" I didn't have time to talk long with her
cuz a lot of other people wanted to speak to her too, but i was so upset
when i completelyt forgot to tell her i'm going to teh Philippines!!!
That's like half the awesomeness! so grandma, be sure to tell her that
in yourletter, okay? :)
So that was a pretty amazing tender mercy. I was elated the whole rest of the night. :)
Monday:
Service day! We cleaned the bathrooms in 2M, but I didn't see emily regis this week.
Tender mercy!! We had time to prepare before we taught our first of
two investigator Rochy (bro. hong)! Our lesson went well and the spirit
was present! We were also told that instead of teaching an investigator
every day, it'd be every other day. this relieved my stress a lot
because it takes so much to transltate our lessons! I know we'll have
multiple investigators a day, but this was just too much for right now!
It's hard becuase i can do everyting in english just fine. Just not in
hiligaynon. I think Heavenly Father knew i wouldn't grow and rely on Him
as much if I went english spekaing. This language is what is bringing
me closer to Him becasuse I struggle and and need to rely completely
on Him in order to know the needs of my investigators and how i can ehlp
them, even if i don't know a thing they're tellling me. It's so hard to
teach them that our message can help them wehn there's a language
barrier! It's like relearning the gospel and starting from the basics
agian. Only i know it, i just can't express it and help others come to
Chirst like i feel like i'm capable of ! I just haev to tell myself that
the language of the spirit is what does the true conversion, even if i
don't understand a bit of the language and can't speak it yet. they
learn from teh spirit anyway, not me.
Later in the day we started our lesson for Juralyn, our second
investigator. I just have to say that inspiration is amazing during
personal and companion study. even though we hadn't tuaght her yet to
find our her needs and how we can help her come to Christ, we did have
something prepared (thorugh the spirit adn inspiration) that helped
answer the questions she did have. She wants to know how teh Atonement
can help her and what we had prepared was a scriptue on prayer and how
it can bring peace. Also, the spirit of testimony is so powerful! When I
bore testimony I could feel the spirit so strong, and I knew she could,
too, even if she couldn't completley understnad me. And I know she
feels our genuine love and concern. We had her write down a few concerns
or questions she had and what she wants to feel, know, and do, so that
we can translate it and know how we can help her. Anyway, that's
something i've really learned this week--that inspiration is so
imporatnat and that comes through study and prayer. It is so amaizng. I
love it!
That's about all i haev time for now, but overall it
was a great week! I got letters from Sister Grover (last week), Brooke,
Lindise, Shalona, Danny, Rosoce, and saw Emily Kime this week, as well
as Emily Regis on the way to class! That always makes me happy. I see
sister Welling every once in a while and she is just glowing like an
angel! She is beatiful! Thank you for all the letters and support and
prayers. I can definitely feel them! I love you all so much! Palangga
taka! (I love you!)
Love,
Sister Dixon
PS They serve french toast here! :)
PPS the computer i'm on can't recognize pictures...i'll send them next week!!
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