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.