I'm in MAHAL (LOVE)!!!

I love the MTC! I love my kasama (companion)! I love my teacher and I love my district! I love my "residence hall" and roommates and Sister Training Leaders! Everything about this place is absolutely amazing!!! I am so excited and blessed to be here.

On our first day at the MTC, after we got our name tags (so amazing!!), our books, dropped our stuff off, met our teacher, met our companion, and learned some Tagalog, the mission presidency and their wives talked to us. I loved what one counselor’s wife shared. She told us to smile, because the Light of Christ comes out through the puffiness of our cheeks. Good thing my cheeks are so puffy you can’t even see my eyes when I smile - all people can see is the Light of Christ! I seriously couldn't stop smiling all day.

The Mission President’s wife talked about Jacob 5 and the Parable of the Vineyard. Every time the master commands the servant to destroy or to work in the vineyard, the servant asks for more time. But then the last time the master commands the servant to work in the vineyard, the servant (the prophet) asks for more workers (missionaries) and then the master (the Lord) comes down and works with all of them. HOW COOL IS THAT!?! I am so grateful that the Lord has blessed us with more workers and that I get to be one of those workers. But you can be too! The Lord needs everyone to be a missionary! AND I love that the Savior, Jesus Christ will work with us every step of the way. I know that this work (especially the language) would not be possible without him.

On our first night, we were placed in a room with about 30 other missionaries and an actor investigator. We were all supposed to role play, and just raise our hands when we have something to say. I learned that it is really important to take the time to ask the investigators questions- about themselves and if they have any questions for us- and learn about what his happening in their lives so that we can better help them. Also, we need to keep our message happy! The gospel is good news after all!

Another really amazing thought from my second day in the MTC: if the children of God do not repent and be baptized, how important/ useful is the atonement of Jesus Christ? It is our job to make sure the atonement wasn’t for nothing. We each need to make Christ’s sacrifice mean something by repenting of our sins and mistakes every day. 

We taught our first investigator yesterday. In only Tagalog. It was really hard. Sister Golightly said a prayer and bore her testimony, and then I was just going to say, "The gospel is important" but I ended up saying "the gospel is love." Sister Golightly and I are just saying that the spirit decided to speak through me and tell our investigator that the gospel is love. It totally wasn't just my terrible Tagalog ;)

Sister Golightly and I are BFF kasamas! I love her! We get along really well and both of us are trying hard to learn the language and obey with exactness. Our branch motto is “obedience brings blessings, but strict obedience brings miracles!” I love that motto, and Sister Golightly and I both agree that we need a miracle very much if we want to be able to learn Tagolog. I feel so blessed with my kasama. I am so grateful also that the Lord gave her the gift of tongues so that I can be blessed through her.

List of humorous mistakes that Sister Golightly and I made on the first day:

1. To get into doors at the MTC you have to slide your MTC ID card through a scanner. There are doors to get into the stairs to our residence hall. We tried all six stairwells and none of the scanners were even working! No red lights, no green lights. So we finally just took the elevator even though we didn’t have suitcases. Our roommates told us that we can just open the door to the stairwell- they aren’t locked.

2. We forgot scriptures to
"Learning How to Teach an Investigator" night. Duh!

3. All four roommates locked ourselves out of the room. We needed to go to the help desk to borrow the spare key. BUT no PJs allowed and you have to be wearing closed toed shoes outside the residence hall. I was in PJs, Sister Golightly and Sister Morral had yoga pants on (also not allowed) and Sister Smith had basketball shorts on, so we voted on her to retrieve the key. She didn't have any shoes on, and since Sister Golightly and I were both wearing flipflops, she had to borrow Sister Morral’s slippers. Hahahaha!!! Another Sister went with her and all was well. :)

Malhal Kito!!!