Week Four!

Hey!  So this week was AMAZING! It definitely had its ups and downs but overall, the week flew by!  Last P-day, we got to go to the temple as usual and it was such a good experience. I had a lot of questions I needed answered and I got them all and more!

I feel like there is so much I need to do to be ready to help the people in the Philippines and not enough time! I think it was nice to get my mind off of all my concerns and just relax a little in the temple. It really helped me to remember that the Lord does not expect me to be perfect now. All he expects of any of us is that we give it all we have, work as hard as we can, and he will do the rest.

On Friday I got to sit by the new districts at dinner and it was so fun getting to know them! I think they are all amazing and have sooooooo much to offer to the world. These past few weeks I have really been focusing on trying to open up and be more social/caring towards others and it has made a huge difference! I've found that I LOVE getting to know people and that once you really take the time to understand someone, there is nobody you can't love!

~Sister Mosher, Sister Whaley, & Sister Matheny~

Saturday was definitely a highlight of my week. I had time to write some letters for my family and I learned a lot about the tender mercies of the Lord. At gym time, my whole district went out to play sand volleyball and it was sooooo fun! I am getting better and better at playing and now when I hit the ball, it actually goes over the net half the time! It has been cold here all week but Saturday it was the perfect temperature for volleyball! I think that was one of the many tender mercies the Lord has given me here at the MTC and I was so grateful I got to enjoy some time getting to know and have fun with my zone.

Sunday was so amazing! It was exactly what I needed to refresh. I was worried about being tired on Sunday because I went to bed late the night before but I wasn't at all! I was amazed at how refreshed I felt all day long. On Sunday night, sister Mosher and I had some fun taking pictures with the lights out and in one, we both made the sickest faces! They looked like something that came out of the "Narnia hole" . . .

 So let me explain the Narnia hole. Last week, we found a hole at the top of my cabinet where past sisters stored things for newer sisters to find. Unfortunately, it is right by my bed. After we found it and went to bed my first thought was "Oh no, I hope we closed that thing! Who knows what could come out and get me in the middle of the night!" Since then, my district keeps making jokes about things that are going to come out of the Narnia hole. So freaky!

Anyways, on Monday my mga kasama and I had one of the best lessons with our investigator yet! (her name is Angelica) We really focused on teaching to her needs and it went so much smoother! I think we all felt really good about it. 

Tuesday my mom sent 40 chicken flings in the mail and my zone had so much fun! We were playing with them all day. I think my mom is everyone in my zone's favorite :) 

~ I spy chicken flings!!! ~

Also, we had devotional and  Nattress of the 70 came to speak. He gave an awesome devotional and I learned so much from him! For one, I thing it really helped me to remember that as long as we have a testimony of Christ, we can make it through anything!

Finally, yesterday I managed to cut my mile time down to 7min 54sec, which is huge for me! When I first got here, my mile time was 13min! I felt so good about it and super energized the whole day. As I have focused on running every day, I have come to find that it is not nearly as bad as I used to think it was. I actually love running (half the time)!

TAGALOG

Soooo... everyone in my zone has started to think it is funny to try and get each other to say "Good water" and "good witness" in Tagalog. Good water is "Mabuti tubig" and good witness is "Mabuti saksi". Try saying them for yourself :)

Also, I learned a new word this week: Nakakapagpabagabag. I am not sure what it means but our district has had a lot of fun saying it!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

Click Here! You won't regret it! ;)

We watched this Mormon message this week called "The will of God" and it was so good! It really helped me to realize that even thought I might have this perfect idea of what I want to be or who I will become, the Lord always knows better. I am so grateful that I am at the MTC at this time, even though I had to wait a little longer to get here. I am supposed to be here now. Just meeting my district, zone and companions has made it all worth it. I think that sometimes we all try to be the person we think we should, or to be like others we think are better. But the Lord made each of us to be unique individuals and if we let him, he will help us to become better than anything we could have ever imagined for ourselves.

I know the Lord loves us, he has a plan for each of us and he will help us to become the best versions of ourselves if we let him.

MTC Halfway Point!

Hey!  I am half way done with the MTC! WOOO HOOO And now, my district is one of the older ones in my zone ;)

This week has gone by so fast! It literally feels like it has been one big long day and I just wrote my weekly email! So crazy! Anyways, last Thursday we got to go to the temple to do initiatory's (I think that's how you spell it?)

 I think that the more we go to the temple, the more I am loving it! Especially since after, we had breakfast at the temple... it was so good! MTC food is alright, but I kind of forgot what real food tastes like, lol. It is a lot better than I remember :) Additionally, we actually got to take a nap last Thursday, which was 100% needed. The weeks here can get tiring if you don't have enough sleep.

Friday was fun, but I didn't accomplish nearly as much as I had planned (language study wise) because I lost all my flashcards! They fell out of the pouch on my bag so I spent all day remaking all 200+ of them. It really sucked and totally put me in a bad mood! But it also taught me a very important lesson: I realized that I had made such a big deal out of my flashcards even though it didn't make much of a difference in the long run. I remade them and it was like they were never lost in the first place, no big deal. The problem is I let myself make it into one. Flashcards are great, but they are not why I am here. I am here to invite others come unto Christ. I have my problems, but there are so many people out there that have it so much worse. For example, Elder Maez was sick on Thursday and got no sleep the night before but he didn't complain about it at all! And here I was feeling sorry for myself about flashcards. I think it made me really think about my reason for being here, and when I realized how silly my problem was I was able to have a positive outlook for the rest of the day. Getting to the point, it really taught me that no matter how rough or bad something might appear and no matter how imperfect I am, if I am just trying my best and make an effort to make someone else's day easier/better than I think I am doing what the Lord wants of me.

On Saturday I got a really nice Dear Elder from my mom, which totally made my day! She is such an inspiration to me and really inspires me to do better. I always knew I had a great mom, but I don't think I can ever really appreciate how amazing she really is :) 

Sunday was so amazing! It was exactly what I needed to get me pumped up for the rest of the week. It is crazy how much of an emotional roller coaster the mission has already been! But despite the good and the difficult moments, I have loved every second and I know it will all be worth it in the end. Anyways, on Sunday I put away my flashcards and spent all my time focusing on the Lord. During down time, I tried to figure out how the people around me were doing and seeing how I could help them. Additionally, we played a bunch of mind games like snaps and green glass door... I figured them all out :) (it only took all day, lol). It was so fun and I really feel like I got so close to the people in our zone! I love those missionaries so much!

And the more I get to know them, the more amazing they are. I know they all have things to work on and so do I. But I think that by focusing on the good in others we are able to love them more and actually be more helpful in encouraging them to keep on trying the best we can, because that is all any of us can really do. None of us are perfect, but as long as we just take it one step at a time, I know that we can all get there some day.

So... .have you ever wondered "what would I do if I were in the shower and the fire alarm went off?" Well on Monday, I got to find out. We only have 30 min to get ready for the day after gym time so my companions and I hopped in the shower right before the alarm went off! I know! Worst timing ever. Anyways, I decided to just go ahead and finish my shower (terrible idea... don't do that) when one of the "firefighters" came up and started yelling at us all to get out. It took forever because I had to get dressed but it ended up being alright. Additionally, my mom sent me a package on Monday full of chicken flings!

So hilarious! Half my zone got one and all the elders walked around with them in their ties all day, so funny! I laughed so hard I cried! Also, we used a chart in our room as a target board, because the chickens would stick to it and when we came back the next day, they had all left chicken-shaped stains! We laughed so hard!

Tuesday my whole zone went outside to play beach volleyball during gym time (because the older districts were leaving on Thursday) and it was sooooo fun! I am horrible at volleyball but still had a blast! While I was out playing, I kept thinking of my sister and how cool it would have been if she were there, because she probably could have smoked my whole district! ;) Additionally, my kasamas and I are getting better and better at teaching by the spirit and we had two amazing lessons today! I think it was because we are learning to focus on teaching by the spirit and using the scriptures more. It is amazing how powerful the BOM really is! It really has changed my life and I know I am happier when I read it. If there was one piece of advise I could offer anyone, it would be to study the Book of Mormon daily (araw-araw).

Anyways, yesterday was a ton of fun! Elder Flores (an elder in my district who has already gotten 15+ packages from his mom!) got a bunch of baby bottle pops and he shared them with us. Let me tell you, those things are amazing! I forgot just how good they are until I finished one yesterday!

Additionally, I got a bunch of cinnamon rolls from my family--including my "favorite person" ;) (you know who you are)--which my companions and I loved!

TAGALOG

This week my favorite lesson about my mission language had to do with grammar. In Tagalog, you have to be really careful how you conjugate words or you could end up saying something completely different than what you meant! For example, "inihahayag po ang Jesus ng tao" means the people killed Jesus while "inihahayag po ng Jesus ang tao" means Jesus killed the people. Which is why grammar is so important! 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

So at Elder Bednar's devotional talk last week, he really focused on how to better study general conference talks. His strategy is to make three columns, one for doctrine/principles, one for invitations and one for blessings. He suggested that for each talk, we focus on these things in order to figure out what the speakers are asking us to do. He said that we should read conference talks over and over again and set goals to make those doctrine principles more a part of our life in the next six months. I loved his advise and want to try doing this for myself.

Anyways, I hope you all have a great week! Thank you so much for all the love and support! I really love getting letters and emails from everyone and hearing about how you guys are doing. You guys all have a great week! And always remember, GOD LOVES YOU!!!

MTC Week Two!

This week at the MTC has been fun, busy, a HUGE learning experience, and super fast! I don't even know where to start!  

So, I'll begin by saying that my mom sent me a package with these awesome chicken flings...

We've had so much fun with them!   My district LOVED them!  They were all asking me to have her send some more! Lol. The neighboring district drew a target on their board and was playing with them as well.  So, thanks mom!

Last Thursday we went to the temple to do a session and woke up at 5:30 to make it to the 7:00 session on time! It was exhausting. And although I hate to admit it, I didn't have a very good attitude about waking up that early so the first half of the day was rough. Things started to get better when my attitude changed though. I tried to be more positive and I was happier! 

In the evening my companions and I got to teach another lesson to Daniel and it was our best one yet! We totally went by the spirit and had an awesome lesson.

 On Thursday and Friday of last week my companion sister Whaley and I were both sick. I think sister Whaley had it worse than me but I was definitely feeling stomach sick and congested, which made it a little more stressful to try and be productive throughout the day. 

On the bright side though, I got a really cute and comfy dress at the bookstore on Friday (my companions and I all got the same dress) and I really learned why it is important to have a positive attitude.

On Saturday I was feeling so much better! So many great things happened. For one, I had gym time. I was planning to go 1.1 mile before taking a rest and 2 miles total but I ended up running 1.5 miles before stopping and 3 miles total! I also cut down my mile time by two minutes! I felt so accomplished and happy. I think part of the reason I was able to do more was because first, I was enjoying myself. As soon as I started running I thought "this is so fun!" and then I didn't want to stop. I didn't let myself have a single negative thought about running. Also, any time someone passed me or I passed another person I would shout "You can do it!" I'm not sure if that actually helped them or if I just looked weird but encouraging others to keep going and being happy for them really helped push me to go further myself.

Sunday we got to fast! It was so hard because I don't usually do that at home and I could have worked harder to make it worth more but overall, the day was really great. My companions and I taught in relief society about enduring to the end and ended up not using any of our lesson plans! Instead, we let the spirit teach. It was so amazing!  Also... I have a sad confession, up until Sunday, the sugar pact from last week still held (because I was the only one who hadn't broken it) but on Sunday, I broke the fast by eating a bowl of delicious tin roof ice cream with my district. So now, I think we have more of a goal to eat healthy than to follow the sugar pact... oh well, we'll see how that goes. 

Anyways, we finished the day by watching a talk by Elder Holland called "Missions are Forever". He is such an inspired man and the talk was so amazing! Speaking of which, we watched a talk by Elder Bednar last week called "Character of Christ". It is targeted towards missionaries but it is a fantastic talk! And if any of you have extra time, I would really suggest watching/reading it some time.

Anyways, Monday is really when I think we started to fall into the swing of things. I learned a ton of Tagalog words and we started learning to conjugate today! In Tagalog, it is pretty easy since they only have a command, past, present and future form of conjugation for each word. The only problem is there are about 20 different kinds of conjugations, so we just started with one today (mag verbs). 

Tuesday was probably my best day of the week by far. This past week, I have been praying for greater love and charity a well as help with faith, I got all of that and more today. We were in Devo (Elder Bednar came to speak, SO MAGANDA) and as he was talking a thought popped into my head asking "why am I so focused on being happy?" I thought "I don't know... it will just be better if I am happy". After that, I started to realize that I was always the happiest when I was helping others, not when I was so focused on myself. During our testimony meeting after that, I really tried to focus on what others were saying and what they really meant rather than what I would say next. I really focused on loving others and didn't let myslef have any negative thoughts. IT WAS AMAZING! I could feel the spirit so strong and felt so at peace! I can't even describe all the amazing experiences I had, but I literally had all of my questions answered. After that, I had the best night of sleep ever and woke up feeling so refreshed.

Yesterday was awesome! SO FUNNY. We had our first meeting with our new investigator Erik tonight and it was great! My Tagalog was the best it has been so far and I didn't have much trouble communicating. I only made a few mistakes. First, when I handed him a Book of Mormon and asked him to read I accidentally called it the "Anak ni Mormon" (Child of Mormon) instead of the "Aklak ni Mormon". That would have been embarrassing enough but later when he was telling us about his three kids I tried to ask him how old they were. We didn't know the word for age so I tried to tell him I was 20, how old are you kids? Instead I accidentally said I have 20 kids! So embarrassing! He looked at me like I was crazy! Finally, as we were leaving, I accidentally farted. (I think it's the MTC food) I'm not sure if he heard it but my companions definitely did. 

So embarrassing! My companions and I got a good laugh out if it after so it was all worth it.

TAGALOG

My favorite word this week is probably Espiritu Santo which means Holy Ghost. I love it because it sounds like a spell from Harry Potter. Some people in our zone have started yelling that at passing people and flourishing. It is really funny!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

So much spiritual stuff happened this week I'm not even sure what to share (magbahagi)! I guess I'll go with something that happened on Monday. During kasama (companion) study, Sister Mosher was telling us about the story in Peter when Peter walks on the water out to Christ. As he started to sink, Christ immediately reached out his hand and helped him up. Thinking about this, two thoughts came to my mind. First, I think that it is true that when we are sinking, Christ will always be there to help lift us out. We just need to take his hand and he will help us through any challenge. I also wondered: if I had been in Peter's shoes and Christ had asked me to walk out on the water to him, would I have had enough faith to do it? I know there are times when we all need Christ's help, but I also think it is important to work on developing enough faith in him to go to him when we need help and to trust him when he asks us to do something. 

Anyways, I have learned so much at the MTC and am so thankful to be here. There have been times when I have wondered if I can do this or if it is even where I am supposed to be but every time I have had those doubts, the Lord has helped give me the assurance and comfort I needed to know that I am doing the right thing. This is where I am supposed to be.

First Week at the MTC!!!

This week was amazing! I love the MTC so much! 

I thought it would be really scary/boring but it is the complete opposite. I love my  companions (I am in a trio) with Sister Whaley & Sister Mosher . . . 

the food isn't that bad . . .

and we do more than just read our scriptures all day long, lol. Plus, learning Tagalog is actually really fun.

Mom, Gabriel and Sister Kelson, I loved getting all your letters this week! It was so sweet, nice and made the week so much better. I love hearing what is going on back home.

So, anyways: about the MTC!

I went out to the MTC last Wednesday and had to wake up at 5:30 to make my flight!!! I remember my first thought when I woke up was "Oh my gosh, I have made a terrible error in judgement." It is funny how when you are tired debating between a mission and a couple extra hours of sleep seems so reasonable! Anyways, the MTC isn't nearly as bad as I thought! Everyone is so nice here and I got to start learning Tagalog almost as soon as I got here. SO OVERWHELMING!!!! But they had ice cream at dinner so that made everything worth it.  ;)

By Thursday I feel like I was already starting to understand that faith and hard work are really what a mission is all about. I worked super hard and did everything I could to stay motivated! In class we learned over 60 words, which is a little stressful. But we have 6 hours of language study almost every day so I should have no trouble learning. Also, I kept losing all my stuff today! I lost my MTC card twice, my room key, a pen, and my debit card. It was a wake up call that I really need to get better at organization. Also, I got a package of cookies from home today which totally made my day.

Friday, I already felt like I have been here forever! Which is crazy but kind of cool. I worked out, which I was dreading. I didn't think running would be as bad as I remember, but I was wrong. Oh well, I am determined to put all my effort into it so I can keep up with my companions by the end of the MTC.

We had general conference over the weekend and it was amazing! I didn't sleep through any of it and the time seemed to fly by. Between sessions I practiced my vocab words which really helped. Also, they had peanut butter cup ice cream for dinner on Sunday, so good! Finally, on Sunday night we watched Character of Christ by Elder Bednar which is probably one of the best talks I have ever heard.

For the rest of the week we kind of got into the grove of things and had the same schedule almost every day. I have been working out and can now run 2 miles without stopping (very slowly) and my companions and I bought mission shirts for the Philippines! We will get them in about two weeks. Also, my district and I signed a sugar pact, so we are not going to eat any sugar while we are 

here . . .

 - side note, don't drink chocolate milk before running! It is a terrible idea.

MY COMPANIONS:

They are so awesome! I am paired up with Sister Mosher and Sister Whaley.  Sister Mosher is from Utah, LOVES essential oils, always says the word "cute" and has read Brandon Sanderson's books. Sister Whaley is super sweet, funny, has awesome hair, is scared of birds and has already been to the MTC before. She got sent home three days before going to the Philippines because she started passing out. I feel bad for her because that sucks, but I am glad to have her as a companion because she already knows WAY more Tagalog than everyone else in the district.

 ~Sister Matheny, Sister Mosher, Sister Whaley~

MY DISTRICT:

My district is amazing! I love them! There are 3 sisters (including me) and 6 elders. Each of them is so smart, funny and has really taught me what it means to be more like Christ. We do everything together and have so much fun in class. Even some of the other districts are jealous of how close we all are :P

TAGALOG:

Learning a language is HARD, but it is so worth it. Everyday I walk around with flashcards trying to learn all the new words they give us. Literally everywhere: in the halls, in lunch, doing laundry, in class, exercising... but it is paying off. We taught our first investigator in Tagalog on Friday which was so rough! We have taught him two more times since then though and we keep getting better and better. I think my favorite word this week is Pananampalataya which means "faith". I know right?!  All their words are soooo long!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

During a testimony with my district after conference, I was listening to each of them speak about their faith, struggles, trials and successes and I realized that you can never really tell what a person might be going through at first glance. God loves everyone. It is not our job to judge them, only to love them and be kind to everyone. 

I know I am so blessed to have a family who loves me, and a knowledge of the gospel. I love Christ so much! He has blessed me in so many ways and has never failed to be there for me. 

To finish, I'd just like to say that I love my mission, my district, and my companions. But most of all, I love God!