Salamat everyone for your letters! I love them so much! I am so excited to be a missionary! You all have no idea how amazing this experience has been already. I shared my testimony on Sunday during Sacrament Meeting in Tagalog... the language is coming so quickly!! Before I talk more about that, I have to say how good a day it has been already. We woke up early to go to the temple and that experience was of course amazing... then in the dressing room, I saw my old roommate Sister Melody Smith, who has been serving in the Provo, UT mission and is going home tomorrow! We ate breakfast in the cafeteria and the elders in our district paid for us. I had waffles and the worker behind the counter made a smiley face with the whipped topping for me :) Then Elder Hidalgo gave me his rice crispy treat... such a wonderful morning! :)
Anyways, the lessons we've taught so far have been... interesting. Yesterday we got a new "investigator" and it was the funniest thing ever. We were trying to keep the spirit there, but right from the beginning it was a challenge. Sister White accidentally asked him "Do I have a family?" instead of "Do you have a family?" and he turned and asked me, "I don't know, does she?" I burst out laughing... I was trying so hard not to though. I taught and recited the first vision, which went pretty well, but at the end when Sister Bowen asked him if he would prepare himself to be baptised, he asked her to repeat the question. The second time she said it, he cut her off short right after she said "Ihahanda mo ba" which means will you prepare and he said "Sure, what would you like? Adobe? Biscuit? Donut?" We didn't really understand what he was asking though and had him write down his question on a piece of paper so we could answer his question later. It was pretty funny when we realized he didn't understand at all! (of course he did, but he was giving us a really hard time). We learned though that we need to be super clear and make sure investigators understand what you are asking them. :) The elders who taught him after us had an even harder time. They couldn't even get in the door. They didn't know how to ask to come in, so they taught their whole 25 minute lesson out in the hallway. We were lucky. He was outside when we got to the room, so we went inside and had a seat. When he came in, he asked if his wife had let us in. We said yes and all was good :)
I am actually loving teaching... for the first time in my life. There's an art to it... to figure out what their needs are... to get to know them and try to help them in the best way you can, by just trusting in and following the spirit. I am definitely not fluent in the language yet, but I have found that it's easier for me to testify in Tagalog than in English... and I think that is because I have been called and set apart to serve in the language of Tagalog, not in English. I am being helped so much more than I ever expected when I got here. Every day the spirit is just so strong and I love it. The church is true! I know that God and Jesus Christ really did appear to Joseph Smith and that through him, Christ's church was again restored to the earth. We have a true and living prophet today on the earth and his name is President Thomas S. Monson.
I was totally going to send pictures today, but there isn't a slot for a memory card on these computers... and it says I'm not authorized to access the device when I plug it in the USB... so I'll have to see what other missionaries do. One more thing, they have informed us that we will not be able to call on mother's day. I didn't know if you guys already knew that, but I didn't. I'm pretty disappointed about it, but I did just see you a couple weeks ago. So, Happy Mother's Day Mom, I love you so much! I am so grateful for all that you have done and do for me. I really appreciate your prayers and support. I love you!
Mahal Kita! Magandang Araw! Ingat! (:
-Heidi
No comments:
Post a Comment