Monday, September 2, 2013

First P-Day from Sister Fonua

Oh my goodness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's Saturday. I got here on Wednesday!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay first of all THANK YOU FOR THE EMAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) It made me really happy!!!!!!!!!!! And second I can't even believe this his happening right now. I am in a slight daze to be honest. Lol I woke up slightly disoriented Thursday morning (at 6:30AM KILL ME) and I really couldn't believe that I was still here. Lol its like THAT. But anyways let me tell you about my time here!!!!!!

Oh man oh man first of all I HAVE to say which EVER MTC you end up going to you will absolutely love it! I just know you will! When I got here on Wed my family dropped me off, we all took pictures on the curb and my aunties and cousins started crying LOL. I hugged every one and said good bye one last time for the next 18 months. A sister was there to greet me and help me me with all of my stuff. I went thru the main office and got my official missionary name tag! (I love it! Hahaha) And and my MTC ID which holds all my money and helps me get into every building here. Right so after that I met my host sister and she took me to my residence and up to my room. After that I had to go to my classroom (where I am learning Tagalog) and I met my companion. She is 19 yrs old and her name is Sister Reategui (it sounds like ray-a-ti-gee lol) and she is from Arizona. She attended BYU-I for one semester before coming on her mission. She is 19 and 6'1!!! Shes super nice and I love her. Shes this tiny little half American half Spanish thing and she is so sweet. We get along surprisingly well. Shes super laid back (like me) and shes not fussy about anything hardly. There are two other girls sharing a room with my companion and I. One is from Wyoming and she went to BYU for a year before coming on her mission. And the second is a sister from Kiribati (kiribes?) Man shes awesome. Shes 19 and was converted 3 years ago. She has a strong testimony and she is beautiful! Lol I am the oldest person in my district (so each zone have districts and each district is basically all of the people in your class room. and each zone is like ... all the people that are going to the same country .. kind of haha  I think there are 15 districts in my zone) anyways so yeah Im the oldest person -_- every one is either 18 or 19 hahaha. At first I thought it was gonna be kind of awkward the whole time, but I was determined not to let my old age get to me LOL. Anyways as of today its great and even tho every one else is younger we are all getting a long really well. We are all different but we have similar personality types so that really helps. Um so yeah in our classroom on the first day our teacher introduced to us the SYL missionary program. It means Speak Your Language. Whenever we are in the classroom we are only allowed to speak Tagalog and our teacher only speaks to us in Tagalog. Lol so far I know how to pray in Tagalog and bare my testimony and how to say good morning, thank you, how are you doing, Im fine thank you etc etc. Its kind of crazy being my 4th day here 3rd full day. I can understand basic conversation and I can communicate simply. Its such a miracle! My pronunciation and comprehension of the language literally grows with each day and I can understand and speak more and more. I am getting really comfortable with it. Its crazy!!!!!!!!!! Seriously. The church is true. So I pretty much walk around saying anything in Tagalog and whenever I speak English I have adapted a fobby Tagalog accent? Hahahaha. But you know thats just me being me. My companion and room mates repeat some of the things I say whether its Tagalog or fobby English and its surprisingly helping us!

Yesterday my companion and I taught our first lesson in Tagalog. And let me tell you. It was such an EPIC FAIL. Seriously. We had prepared all this stuff. We wrote down questions in Tagalog. We had prepared a couple scriptures. We had found a paragraph in the Tagalog Preach My Gospel that we were going to get her to read. We had written down some of our testimony and we were prepared to pray in Tagalog. All day we were told not to take our notes in and to just go by the spirit even if we felt uncomfortable. So before we said a prayer and decided we were going to close our notebooks and go by the Spirit. Well when we were teaching the lesson it took all of 5 seconds for us to drop that notion. Half the time we were laughing at ourselves and blushing really hard and the other time we were looking at each other in complete bewilderment trying to figure out how to answer her COMPLICATED questions. Well we got thru it but felt like total and utter failures after. It was intense and not the greatest feeling. The one thing we were grateful for tho was that she didn't walk out on us. The district that arrived at the MTC before us had their investigator walk out right in the middle of their lesson. Hahahaha! So yeah, tender mercies right? Anyways we are teaching her another lesson in Tagalog today (every lesson we teach has to be in Tagalog) and on Monday and Tuesday. So say a prayer for us please! That would be awesome :) It IS difficult but each and every one of us is so blessed every day. I literally can feel the love that my family has for me and I am so grateful for that! The Spirit is definitely THERE every time we are in class struggling to learn this foreign language. And you can tell. At the end of every day it sort of hits you. How much you've learned and what a true miracle it is. Also how much you can accomplish when you put your trust in Him. I have recognized my weaknesses and my short comings even more since being here and I have taken it to the Lord each and every time. I am so grateful for this Gospel! And every thing that it teaches us! I love the passage in D&C 34:2-5,11. Heavenly Father DOES love us and if we follow Him he WILL BE WITH US! It is promised in that scripture. Now more than ever before in my life I need his presence with me to guide and direct me in being more in tune with the Spirit and learning this language to the best of my ability. I truly love this Gospel. And I am so grateful to be here! You make it so much easier for the Spirit to dwell with you when you are being obedient. I have worked really hard to be on time, and get up and be in bed at the times that I am supposed to. I haven't aways succeeded but its only the 4th day and I have 6 weeks to get this right so I am not worried. The Lord has blessed my life. And I know he can bless yours when you let him. I have a strong and unwavering testimony of this.

Other than that every thing is sweet! The bookstore has like everything. And there is an alterations place for sisters. You can even get your hair cut for free. They have journals, watches, SNACKS (LOL), clothes, cards, notebooks, pens, pencils etc etc. So if you forget anything they have it all her for you. If you go to the Provo MTC that is lol. Anyways I am loving my experience here. It gets overwhelming with the language and all the things we have to do every day but there is no way you can hate it. You feel the spirit so strongly and you cant stay angry, frustrated, or upset for long.
I love it here! And I am so grateful for all of the trails I had leading up to the day that I came. It was all worth it! Alam ko po na totoo po ang ebanghelyo. (I know this Gospel is true.) Alam ko po na mahal Diyos kayo. (I know God loves you.) My testimony of these two simple truths continues to grow every day, as I strive to be obedient and increase my spirituality so I can better understand the language of the Spirit. I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I can't wait to see some of you again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love always,
Sister Fonua


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