The FIRST EMAIL!!! From Sister Remund

Kamusta! Maayong Hapon! (Good afternoon!)

Kamusta ka? How are you? The answer is... maayo-good, maayo gid-very good, okay lang-okay, kapoy-exhausted. And that answers your question on what kapoy means. Haha it makes me think of Hallie and the minions. Speaking of Hallie, why have I not heard from her? Come on Hallie! Why wont you email your favorite sister? Other people that I havent heard from... Mom and Dad I know you sent me letters on dear elder but no email? Come on. And Laura? Tell her Im mad at her. Haha just kidding. But she did break her promise of emailing every week. And its only week one. Ahh I have so much to tell you I dont know where to start! I love it here! Im having such a great time! Mom you asked what we do on Sundays. Since it was fast Sunday we had a mission conference. It was really good! I loved it! Since we couldnt eat mostly all we did all day was personal study. That night we had a devotional by Jenny Oaks Baker. Daughter of Dallin H. Oaks. She is such a good violinist! It was amazing! After that we watched a video of David Bednar on the character of Christ. It was probably the best video I've ever seen! I wish you could watch it but its only in the MTC. I loved it! I wish I could tell you all about it but I will run out of time. Then we had another devotional on Tuesday by Jay E. Jensen and his wife. That was really good too. Pretty much everything is really good! One thing I really liked was something Sister Jensen said. She talked about how Christ gave his life for this gospel and thats what we are called to do as well. She said serving a mission is the best thing we can be doing right now but when we get home we cant stop. We have to always be serving the church somehow. It never ends. It reminded me of a scripture I read. 2 Nephi 2: 6-8. So if you want to read that you can. I liked how in verse 8 it said that spreading the gospel around the world is the most important thing!

My companion is really cool. We get along really well for the most part. We are very different though. She likes singing and dancing and doing plays and stuff like that. She also doesnt like playing any sport with a ball. Luckily we can both do whatever we want in gym because we dont have to be right next to each other and we usually switch companions with someone in our district. So it works. But shes great. She reminds me of Taylor Armour if that helps you get a better picture of her.

One thing I've learned is that you need to send dear elder letters by noon if you want me to get it that day. If its afternoon I will get it the next day. If you are ever wondering what I am doing during the day, the answer is studying. Whether its personal, in the classroom, or companion, we are studying all day. But I like it so its okay. Im starting to get used to the routine. It was weird yesterday when the new missionaries came. We walked around saying welcome to everyone that was new. That what people did when we were new so we did it to the new ones. I felt like I had been here forever and all the new missionaries probably had too. That what I thought about everyone that said welcome to me. Its weird not being in the newest group of missionaries now. I saw Elder Berry twice on the first day! I havent seen him since though. I also saw Sister Jones( I played volleyball with her- suva. Kylie Jones.) And today I saw Sister Heger( Leah)! She just came yesterday! Its nice to see familiar faces. Also I asked Sister McDonald if she plays the violin and she does! She said that the other McDonald girl you remember is her older sister. Shes really nice. I like having her as my teacher. Shes really good. That language is so hard but also I really like learning it! Its hard trying to teach in Hiligaynon. We have taught every day for the past week. Its crazy. The food is really good! I like it a lot. I also like having a regular schedule of when I eat. Its nice knowing exactly when I am going to get food. Along the lines of food, thank you so much for the packages! I love all the candy and so does everyone who has visited my room! My sister training leaders say the love visiting with us but I think its only because I give them food. Haha just kidding. They are really nice. Elder Johnson is in my district! The one whos mom took our picture. It was cool to meet him. Also please tell Judy Jensen I said thank you so much! My roommates and sister training leaders loved the pumpkin chocolate chip bread! I loved it too! Its my favorite! For exercise we go to the gym. We have a time on our schedule to go. I already kind of talked about what we do but I play basketball for the entire hour. I've missed basketball so much! I love getting to play!

Thank you to everyone who has written me or sent me anything! I love coming back from lunch or dinner and seeing a letter on my desk! Its so nice getting to read stuff from you! Send more! Also if you want to, you can add President Lopez on Facebook. Sister Evans said he posted pictures almost every day. And he said in his last email he will let you. Also I am going to need to send some stuff home before I leave. I brought a lot more than I need and a lot of stuff I cant have! Oops. Another thing is I might have already broken a rule. I didnt know that I wasnt supposed to write letters if its not my P-Day. So I will write them on my P-Day and send them but thats the only time you will get them. Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYANNE!!! Your letter is in the mail. And on our picture in front of the temple with our entire district, notice the big gap between us and the Elders. We laughed so hard when we saw that! I have some more funny stories. First, while me and Sister Smith were teaching, we asked our investigator if we could do anything for him. We answered and since we had no idea what he said, we wrote down what we thought was most important. We wrote down basi tulod. We looked it up when we got back to class and it means fear of eggplant! We laughed so hard!! Then we realized he said basi pu lang which is a conjunction. So we still have no idea what he said. Also Sister Evan always hits things or falls. We laugh really hard. She does too so its okay. I have more but Im almost out of time. Pretty much we have had a lot of funny experiences!

We all bought a shirt in the bookstore that says Philippines on it and has the flag. We are all wearing it today. I will take a picture and send it next week. Also I do need some things... Like flipflops for the showers. Forgot those. Just send some cheap ones from Old Navy or something.  If I think of anything else I need I will let you know! But I have to go! I miss you all and love you so much! Hope you are having fun at home and ready for school to start! Have a good first week! Bye!

 Another one of my district.

 Also our district. From left to right, Elder Hillman, Elder Carnahan?, and Elder Johnson(the one whos mom took our picture)

 Me and Sister Smith at the map.

 From left to right, Sister Piula, Sister Evans, Sister Smith, and me.

 Love the bread and Dr. Pepper!! And supporting Great Harvest.

 Some pictures that didnt work on my camera. I dont know why. But me and Sister Smith the first night and my roommates at the big map! Me, Sister Smith, Sister Piula, and Sister Evans!