Email #2 from the MTC - Aug. 15, 2013

Kamusta family!

Wow I cant believe I have been here for two weeks and its my P-Day again! Its going by so fast! Everything is still great! Im adjusting to MTC life and I really like the food! I realized though that last week I forgot to tell you why I love emails so much! In the morning I can go and print off my emails and hurry and log off. Then I can go back to my room and read them and plan what I am going to say in my room. Then I can get on and use the entire hour typing my letter to you! So you would get more but Im not very good at typing. I make a lot of mistakes so it takes a while. Plus I can read your emails throughout the week since they are printed off! Its great! Thank you for all the emails this week! It was a big improvement from last week! I love it! And thank you for the package! The bugels are almost gone. I eat them all the time. And I love chex mix. We have so much food though! My roommates parents keep sending them food too so we have a ton! I think you guys are trying to make me fat. Sister Nonu(from the district next to us) is convinced that I never stop eating. Every time she sees me I am eating. One night she came in while I was eating, then came in about 20 minutes later and I was still eating. She said "You are still eating?!?" It was funny. I feel like Laura. I can eat all day. But I need to stock up before I get to the Philippines!

It was such a good week! On Sunday we watched music and the spoken word. I loved it! I love listening to music! It really brings the spirit! After that was relief society. And it was amazing. Relief society is combined with all the sisters at the MTC. It was so cool! And also the speaker was Rosemary M. Wixon, general primary president! That was amazing! I loved hearing from her. She is amazing! Then we continued the amazing speakers on Tuesday night for the devotional. Also at the devotional I sang in the choir, I know, shocking. But it was really cool! And it made it even better that I made it on camera three times! But I didnt see myself because they dont let us look at the screen. But I was told that I was on camera three times! I felt pretty cool. But anyway the speaker was Richard G. Scott and it was amazing! He talked about prayer and the spirit was so strong. One thing he said that I really liked was that answers to prayers come in three ways. A calm, peaceful feeling tells you its the right choice. A stupor of though is the wrong choice. But we all know that. What I really liked was the third one. The third answer is no answer. He said that the Lord will do this so that we can grow in faith. Also when the Lord doesnt answer, dont start murmuring, act. When we act in faith the Lord will provide blessings. I loved it!

Also I get to go to the temple today! It reopened this week! I feel like I havent been in forever so Im excited to go today. Another thing I love about the MTC is we will be outside studying and someone will come up and ask if they can practice their testimony in their language(something that I have had to do a few times) Its amazing how I cant understand anything they are saying, but the spirit is the same. I love it! I also love Wednesdays because all the new missionaries come! I love seeing them! I love walking around and welcoming everyone. Since everyone welcomed me when I came, I feel like I should welcome everyone else and let them know it will be okay. I also saw Steevi Hutchings today! She just got here yesterday! I love seeing familiar faces! It doesnt happen very often.

That was nice of Uncle Kirt to think of me! Its crazy that I am so close to them now. Im way close to everyone up here, but I also feel so far away from them. Its weird. I got Lauras letter! It was so nice hearing from her! I miss the bakery so much! I want bread! Everyone here thinks Im weird because I keep saying how much I want and miss bread! I love how you put the picture I sent up at the bakery. Thats funny. Also its funny that you mentioned the quote from Mulan 2. Every night while I am showering someone starts singing I'll Make a Man Out of You. I always think of when we were in Idaho  and we sang that song in the car with Ashley! And also grandma wrote me and said that you guys have been crying a lot so the quote is perfect. Kams extensions look great! I like them a lot! Teemer you have long hair again! That cool that she taught YW too! I wish I could hear it! Im sure it was amazing! And of course you let her start making cupcakes. You never even gave me a chance to prove myself. I could have been really good at it! I was the best cook in the house remember? But thats awesome that she is working at the bakery too! She will actually have money! Haha. And with Laura right? They will have so much fun together! I love that my sister and one of my best friends will get to work together! It will be awesome!

Also Im not really homesick, but I've read every letter from my farewell... oops. I just like reading at night and they are perfect! Hiligaynon is coming. Its really hard though. I love it and hate it at the same time. No mom we didnt say it right. I will tell you how to say it when we talk on the phone. Its hard teaching because I can understand the questions they ask, and I know what I need to say to answer, I just dont know how to say it in Hiligaynon! It makes me mad. But I will learn. The card you see on the bottom of my shirt is my ID card. All the buildings are locked so I swipe that card so I can get in. And it gets me into the cafeteria. Sorry mom but you wouldnt be able to break in anymore. Thats so cool that Kayla is having a good time! Thats crazy that there are three sets of missionaries in her ward! Wow! And I still cant believe my baby sister is going to Lava Ridge. Its sad that she has to go to school so early. I dont like waking up early so I know how hard it must be for her. That stinks! Sorry Hallie. And I love what Hallie said in her letter to me about Cluso. "We must never quit. Again! Again!" I wont quit Hallie! And all my roommates love that I know the banana song. They want me to teach them.

At basketball the other day, I was playing with the other district and it was so funny! Sister Russon kept hitting me with the ball. Im a ball magnet! Nothing has changed! And last night we all went out and played sand volleyball. It was so funny because we all are so bad! It was a miracle if we hit the ball over the net more than three times! We got a better workout from laughing and chasing the ball then anything else! It was great! Also Elder Johnson reminds me of Uncle Jeff Hall. The other day he was doing the Napolean Dynamite dance in class. It was so funny! And I get along really well with Sister Masse. You saw the picture where we popped our collars? She didnt even really have a collar so it was so funny! And she has a face she always makes that is hilarious! She usually doesnt even realize she is making a face which makes it ten times better! And during companion prayer one night, Sister Smith was saying it and you are supposed to start with Amay namon sa Langit (our father in heaven) but she said pwede kami which means can we. We had to start over because we were laughing too hard! And she also said "Have we learned how to say yes?" Sister Evans said yes and so Sister Smith went "oo ooo" Sister Evans replied with "You just said it!" Yes is oo. It was so funny! And yesterday while we were teaching our investigator, they came on the intercom and was looking for an elder. There wasnt a class in there so she made us go look for the elder and tell him he needed to go to the front desk. It was funny. We had to pause our lesson. I think Sister McDonald wasnt very happy about it. I thought it was really funny though. But I love hearing from all of you and cant wait to hear from you again! I love you and miss you so much! Halong! (Goodbye)

Sister Remund

This is Sister Masse. I will tell you more about her in my email but we popped our collars to be gangster and her and Sister Nonu (her companion) think I am always eating so they took a picture of us eating.

Also the picture of the minion that Ashley drew for me

Also I really miss Great Harvest and want bread! And then a picture of all the food we have received! This is only like half of it. I think all you parents got together and decided that you were going to try and make us fat before we go to the Philippines.

We bought shirts with the Philippines flag on them! And found a picture of the Philippines so we took a picture by the picture! Also thats our door decoration. Everyone goes all out on it but we just put a sticky note with smiley face stickers and wrote welcome to the MTC!