Week: 1

Well. here it is! Tati's FIRST email! It was sent to my family and I on July 6; so here you go!


Date: Sat, Jul 6, 2013 at 10:16 AM
Subject: week 1

MTC: Missionary Training Center

PI: Philippines

Guro: Teacher

Kasama: Companion

"Hey everyone!!!!!

So, even though I haven't really had a full week at the MTC, I am still going to consider this as WEEK 1.

Right off the bat, I am going to tell you that the MTC is amazing. My Guro for my language class is super cool, because he is a white guy who speaks perfect Tagalog. It blew me away. If he can do it, so can I haha. Anyways, I have two kasamas: Sister Smith and Sister Judd and both of them are from Utah. Sister Smith is actually heading out to the Manila Mission, instead of heading with me and Sister Judd to Quezon City. Something happened with her visa, so instead of going straight to the PI MTC, she is here with us. I love my kasamas so much!!!!! Also, the Elders in my District are hilarious. It is only the third day, but we have bonded so much.

Wednesday: My first day at the MTC, many of the other sister missionaries were constantly asking me if I was nervous and I honestly wasn't. Today was made up of many orientations, but I did not fall asleep!!! Apparently my zone (People heading to the Philippines in total) contains almost 100 missionaries. We are the biggest....that's what they tell me, then again they also tell me that we are the best haha. In one of our meetings, we were introduced to Brother Power, who was the first missionary to the Philippines. He and his wife are amazing and they make me laugh so much. Also, for those of you in the Young Single Adult Ward,  I ran into Elder Kellen Winslow.

Thursday: This morning was pretty funny. Many of the Sister Missionaries were asking my me and my kasamas how much sleep we did not receive. On the contrary, we slept pretty dran great. In the cafeteria, there is an area where all of the Philippines missionaries sit, so that's where my District will be sitting until we head out, which should be in about 5-6 weeks? I also ran into Elder Winslow again!!! We haven't had time to take any pictures, so hopefuly I am able to see him again!!! The rest of today was huge jumble. We needed to squeeze many of our activities because the MTC wanted all of the missionaries to have a 4th of July type of conference and to watch the fireworks, since we are right next to BYU's stadium. During the conference, we sang about 10 billion sings, had a speaker, sang 5 billion songs and watched a movie called Seventeen Miracles. I urge all of you, even if you are not a Mormon, to watch this video. I cried so much and I had no problem with it because tons of Elders around me cried also haha. The fireworks will also very nice. We couldn't leave that MTC to get better views, which was perfectly fine. My kasamas and I were actually too tired to watch them, so we headed back to our rooms to sleep. I forgot to mention that there can be as many 6 sister missionaries to a room, but our room only has 3. THANK GOODNESS.

Friday: This morning was the first lesson we had the opportunity to teach, all in Tagalog. My kasamas and I, despite our nervousness, did farily well. My whole District know that I am the one to go when they do not know a word in Tagalog, but it makes me feel embarrased at time because I have so much more to learn. If they aren't asking me about translations, they are asking me about pronounciations. During the lesson, my kasamas and I realized that we had forgot to pray before starting, so we prayed in the middle. It was pretty funny. We got our investigator to commit to reading the Book of Mormon, but we forgot to give him, and we didn't realize that until our teacher pointed it out to us as he laughed at us -______-.  Also today, I ran into Sister Caitlin Blickenstaff! We didn't have any time to talk, so we hugged out the love (:

Saturday: For our first P-day, my kasamas and I were so excited to wear regular clothes on campus. It made us feel like we didn't look the "freshman missionaries" haha. The Laundry room is pretty crazy. It's kinda like waiting next to oven while you are in a line at Disneyland. My kasamas and I will be teaching the same investigator tonight, and we have more tagalog that we need to practice.

I am so thankful for my decision to serve a mission. I know that at any time, I can just give up and go home, but I know that I won't.  I know that this is where I am supposed to be. I am so excited for the Philippines.

(I am going to type a small testimony in tagalog without notes. I promies haha)

Alam ko po na totoo po ang ebanghelyo. Nagpapasalamat po ako ang Espiritu Santo. Alam ko po na buhay po ang Tagpapaglitas. Sa pangalan ni Jesucristo, Amen."