Week 3 - learning Tagalog

hallo!!! 

 How did Nani's baptism go?   Whats happening in NY? I heard at the temple this morning that there is like a massive storm times two on the east coast and nyc is underwater and totes shut down? are people ok? are the Nelson's ok? (our friends in NYC)

Yesterday our teacher taught about prayer and it was super awesome. He told us that by the end of class he wanted us to be completely different people and we kinda were which was way cool! He just had us go through our resources and read and study and then study with our companions and then teach and then right after that we had to teach him as our "investigator" Toni and he had just challenged us to end every lesson with the investigator offering a kneeling spoken prayer and then we were like 2/3 through our lesson and toni was like umm i have to go you're out of time and we were like ok can we come back blah blah blah and i was like umm you're gonna pray before we leave. i just like kept talking till he prayed for us which was kinda hilarious cuz it was actually bro langer and he knew what i was doing but if it was real it would have been crazy cuz we hadn't taught him ANYTHING about prayer except through us praying at the start and end of our last lesson. but it was fun. 

Tagalog is super fun. we're working on our syl (speak your language) which means we say everything we know how to say in tagalog everything we want to say that. like instead of saying yes we ALWAYS say opo ect. its fun, i enjoy it cuz thats the kind of language learning that is chill for me, pick up phrases in a language and implement them into my normal language. but my grammar is still awful unless its scripted. like i don't think in Tagalog i just translate from English so its English grammar which is wrong in tagalog. room for improvement obviously. im also working on the dictionary. yesterday i started letter A. I'm going through each letter and writing it out on my own paper and studying from that and highlighting a word once i know it and moving on to the next letter once i know the majority of that letter. actually kinda entertaining :)

Everything is wonderful, I'm still alive, the weather is bipolar but whatevs its Utah. I'm loving it here (especially the devotionals, we're singing in the choir tonight and its AMAZING)

Ok one more thing on that! we went to practice on Sunday and the director was A. hilarious and B. super motivational lolz we're singing faith of our fathers and there are like a million elders so that sound awesome and he was like how old are you sisters? do we have any 19 year olds yet? and we don't so he was like ok good. now i want you to sound like mature 21 year old women. once the 19 year olds invade all bets will be off but you sisters can do this! it was funny and then he showed us how and we actually sounded preeeeetty awesome. just saying :) then he told us a bunch of super awesome pioneer stories about like John Taylor and Parley P. Pratt as missionaries and how that is the faith of our fathers and that is what we are singing about and how we need to feel that in our music. super cool. loved it!

aight im done now for reals. :)

love you all!!

Mahalkita!!!

-Sister Jones

First Email from the MTC

October 16, 2012

Hello! Kumusta po!

Today is my P day! (obviously.) I wrote you a letter but you will probably get it today or tomorrow. everything is great! I have two companions, Sister Hayden and Sister Pace and they are both wonderful and working so hard!! The first day was a lil bit crazy cuz they just threw us into Tagalog, but my teacher, Sister Watkins is awesome! and so great at helping us understand what is happening even if we don't know what she is saying! We have already taught three lessons in Tagalog!!! ano po ang CRAZINESS??? yep. the first two were pretty rough but the last one actually went pretty well! we talked about the Holy Ghost and all it can do for us and I could actually understand and communicate with our investigator!! no doubt, we have a loooong way to go, but that was super exciting! and only after what, 6 days?? i see a bunch of people here that i know, which is exciting! i saw the clive elder the first day, he was sitting in front of me in our orientation meeting! so i said hello and thanked him and he seems cool. my district and branch are awesome!! our district has mga kasama mo and i as the only sisters and then 6 elders. they are very energetic and fun! they are good elders and we are all getting along very well! (sometimes i need to be studious like mga kasama mo and not as silly like the elders..... room to improve, for sure!!) the food is pretty good, everyone else doesn't like it very much but i think its good. idk what that says about my tastes in food buuut whatever! we have class allll day and its a lot of sitting, but we all go to the gym in the mornings and during gym time so that breaks it up nicely. we have yet to play soccer but! my coordinating sister, Sister Huddleston, plays soccer! i think she played for Dixie state actually so its gonna happen one of these days before they close the outside field! sometimes i fall asleep in personal study when it gets too quiet... more room for improvement!

 Tagalog is SUPER fun to learn and everything is a tongue twister but that makes it all the more exciting when you get a word down! we went to the temple bright and early this morning and it was lovely!! not even that cold out! (although i have already busted out my coat a bit) Thats awesome that Omar and Jake are companions!! they'll have a lot of fun together i think! 

ps being in a trio is pretty much a party. all the time. except at night cuz we all pass out mad fast. Church here is amazing!!! for relief society Sister Linda Burton came and talked to us (general relief society president) and it was amazing!! and then we met with our branch and a few missionaries that are leaving soon spoke in Tagalog which i didn't really understand but thats ok. Singing the hymns in Tagalog is super fun! it makes you feel like you actually know the language! our district decided to all read the Book of Mormon in Tagalog which is way cool, but right now it is taking forever!!!! I'm still in 1 Nephi 1..... but i also started the Book of Mormon over again sa Inglesse and that is going much better. And the Pearl of Great Price. That is such a great book of scripture. also on Sunday we had a district meeting were our branch president came and told us how hard european missions are and how lucky we are that we aren't going there (he served in Sweeden) sooo cool. most def stoked i'm going to the Philippines!!!! tomorrow we're teaching our "investigator" again and we can only use our scripture. no notes, no dictionaries, nothing!!! (prayers are welcome, that will be exciting) (our investigator is our future teacher! lolz) thanks for all the letters and love and support! its fun to hear from you guys!!

 i'll write back on paper today cuz i won't have time to respond via email. also on sunday we went to a fireside by someone who is in charge of the provo mtc or something... it was really good! we sang a lot! which is cool to hear all the missionaries in one room singing hymns! he talked about the new mission ages a bit and how they're shortening the time in the mtc, but that wont happen to us, probs not till Jan/Feb so we will be training all the new missionaries that had shorter times.... huzzah! and then he talked about a bird's eye view vs a worm's eye view and that was super cool and a great thing to hear right at the beginning because it reminded us that we should always keep the purpose of what we're here to do in mind!! 

 for the film on Sunday we watched an old talk by Elder Oaks on desire that was amazing! i feel like everything has been answers to questions that i've had or things i've been pondering for quite some time. The Lord is so great!! I said my first prayer in Tagalog without notes in our third lesson and it was really slow, but cool! It is so pretty up here with all the fall colors!! we have some great views of the mountains in our classrooms and occasionally we get to see them without a glass in between!! on sunday we went on a temple walk and it was beautiful!! we took some picture, but i did not take my camera soo you`ll have to wait on those lolz till i get home and am fb friends with mga kasama mo at mga elder. sorry :) well my time is short so this is all you get! 

Mahal Kita!!!!

-Sister Jones (Seeester Jones)

Sarah's in a 3 companionship...

The email didn't work for Sister Jones last week, so this week we got two emails!
Hello!!!!

So sorry about last week. I am getting all your dear elders and packages and whatnot and they are awesome! (ps an elder in our district has yet to receive anything!!! So he decided he would take a letter from me as a tax for getting them from the box and he read dad's first letter and was DYING and so a bunch of the elders read it and all thought it was hilarious and want dad to write them and all want to meet him. lolz they were both hilarious :) ) anywho!! the grey skirt is perfect, thank you!! great job on the length! I did not get abducted by pirates buuuut sometimes the elders are a lil bit savage so does that count? ;) joke long joke long (jk jk) and i did get rocky mountain fever aka a wicked cold this weekend. suuuper lame but its pretty much gone already sooo it's all good! 

We went to the temple today and it was lovely! The weekend with your sisters sounds awesome!! im so glad you got to experience that with all of them!! Grandma Sheldon sent me a letter right before that and so did Lindsay right before her baby! so it was perfect timing!  Nick is destroying all of you at writing me. he wins, hands down!! thanks broski!! Its always fun to read all of your letters! I sent in my ballot today! 

We should name my blog something cool in Tagalog like pananampaletaya (faith) ooooor something else that i can't think of right now.... i'll work on that. also, smile gun is actually ngiting baril, sorry i didn't know about linkers last week so that was totes wrong. my b. 

Tomorrow we're teaching real people at the TRC!!! Two lessons all in Tagalog! and then the next day we're teaching a new "investigator" and the next day another "investigator" (our teachers do role playing so we can have a progressive investigator) its crazy! also, if we learn Joseph Smith's account of the first vision before saturday in Tagalog, our teacher will show the elders how to tie their ties really cool and the sisters get..... biyaya sa langit. (blessings in heaven) but its all or nothing so we're memorizing it to help out the elders. our teachers are both super great!! they have so much enthusiasm and love for the gospel and the people of the Philippines! it makes me so excited to go there and serve them!! 

we have such amazing opportunities for growth here! for example. last week Sister Burton taught relief society, this week it was Sister Dibb! (Ann M. Dibb) both did an amazing job! I had to bring my journal with me today to remember what has happened this week because all the days just run together!! 

We played soccer yesterday!!! it was super fun! kinda crappy soccer, but way fun to get all the sisters from our zone out there together and mess around. the brother that was working the field served his mish in Ventura!! he was in first ward when sister dalton and doxey were in our ward! (were they together??) anyway around then.

I've decided to write a miracle a day in my journal and it has been really fun! the Lord is so kind and there are miracles around us all the time! its really cool to step back and acknowledge and thank the Lord for what He has done in my life that day. plus in the five million prayers we say every day! but those are in Tagalog a lot and our vocab is limited so we can only thank him for like ebanghelyo at Espiritu Santu, at stuff like that. so we are always suuuuper grateful for those things lolz.

Being in a threesome is super fun but it definitely has its own challenges so its been a great opportunity to work on my people skills lolz and to really turn to the Lord to find out how to work through some stuff! (don't worry my companions are amazing! and we're having a great time together and all is well :) ) i just have a lot to work on, for sure. the language is coming along pretty well, i can understand a lot more than i can say but the last couple lessons i have mostly been able to describe what I'm trying to say using round about language like we had to explain what a prophet was.... so we said he is a speaker for God, and our investigator was like oh so you're prophets?? and we were like noooo we are little speakers for God, the prophet is the Main speaker for God! obviously not the best explanation buuuut it worked and we didn't know how to say things like authority and keys and priesthood and stuff like that so it makes it interesting and it definitely tests the depth of our understanding of the gospel because we have to explain everything using the vocab of a three year old definitely exciting! also if i start talking like yoda in my emails it is because the Tagalog sentence structure is totes backwards and we need to start thinking like that so we can get the hang of it. also tagalog has in-fixes. like english has prefixes and suffixes. Tagalog has those PLUS infixes. suuuper exciting. it is actually kinda exciting, no joke :)

ok cool, time's almost up! ps the teaching cycle is amazing and the Lord blesses us so much when we follow His plan for things (like use the teaching cycle to teach our investigators!!) the gift of tongues is definitely what is getting me through these lessons and it is so cool!!!!!

love you all!!

mahal kita!!

-Seeester Jones :)