Unang Linggo sa Pilipinas!!!!!!

 *Sydney with her Provo MTC Companion

 *On the way to the airport in SLC she ran into Amanda and Sophie!!!

 *She has arrived!  The Philippines flag flying

 *Her new Manila MTC companion (who was with her same group in Provo).  

She's from California, too.

*Their new classroom for the week

Sobrang excited po ako dahil sa akin sa Pilipinas!!!!!!! The MTC is awesome here! 

The coolest thing: we get to go outside into the real world! On pday (it got changed to today by the way), we get to go to some stores down the road YAY!! And to the temple which is even more beautiful in person. We get to go on splits tomorrow which means we get to go out with REAL missionaries in the REAL world and talk to REAL people! I'm so excited. 

The best thing: Filipinos everywhere that I get to try to talk to! They're all so friendly. This MTC is super small compared to Provo, so we were very popular when we arrived. There's only a handful of missionaries that were already here that are native English speakers. Most of them (meaning like 3 haha) are Australian. Some others are from China, a couple from Kirabati. I love it!

Other best thing: FOOD!!! MMMmmmmmm I love Filipino food so much. They pile up our food like crazy and so we're all gonna gain so much weight just in this week YAY. There's even a snack time at this MTC!

The funniest thing: We taught a lesson to someone who works here pretending to be a non-member. They are brilliant actors which means... tough, tough lessons! Haha it was the most awkward lesson of my life. We just taught him about prayer and how to pray, so at the end, I invited him to say the closing prayer. He said ok and started to pray. Sister Tapusoa, my new kasama, said that when he started struggling to pray, she opened her eyes slightly and saw him staring straight at her! Talk about awkward oh my goodness! It was seriously like we were teaching a wall, it was tough and sobrang kawiliwili hahah!

The MTC here is very different. For example, there's a wake up announcement in the mornings and we're not allowed to do personal study or anything outside of the classroom. The president is very involved and we see him everywhere. If there's a group of missionaries talking, he'll come up to them and say "Ok where are you headed to next?" Haha it's definitely different than us being self-governed in Provo.

This place is like a resort, holy cow! We have bathrooms in our rooms, including showers! And the courtyard is so gorgeous. You can see the Angel Moroni on the temple from everywhere.

Don't forget that I love you all and I pray for you often. I can't wait until I have more exciting things to tell! Please remember that Heavenly Father is there for you and He loves you more than you could imagine. You can never be unworthy of His love. I think sometimes we forget that. Don't be too hard on yourselves. Know that it's never too late to be the kind of parent or friend you want to be, quit a bad habit, focus more on others than yourself, whatever it is. Jesus Christ's Atonement is a gift. For you. No one is an exception. God is anxiously awaiting for you to come unto Him, to come closer. Even if you think your relationship with Him is good, it can always be better. Pray to Him, tell Him that you love Him. I know that He will hear and that you can feel of His love right back.

Mahal Kita,

Sister Stewart

Week Lima! WOW

Sister Stewart has a new email address: 

sydney.stewart@missionary.org

Matching skirts with Sister Delarosa

KAMUSTA! MAGANDANG HAPON! MAHAL KITAAAAA!
It’s Sister Stewart here and GUESS WHAT!? We got our flight plans
today! We leave for the Philippines on February 25. Nope nope no I
couldn’t be any more excited!! I’ve been so pumped for this since the
day I got my mission call.
Funny story for y’all. So you know how weird things happen to me
fairly frequently, like being deported from India for example? Well...
on Sunday, we come home. I go to the bathroom (TMI-tell more
information? ok) and I hear this alarm. It sounded distant so I was
like oh it’s probably just the building next to us. But then my
kasama, Sis. Vaiaoga runs in and says “kasama! It’s going off in the
rooms!” Imagine the loudest sound you’ve ever heard multiplied by 30.
So I was like alright you guys let’s be smart and evacuate like normal
people would. So we walk outside (it’s snowing) and are immediately
confused because no one else evacuates!! So we waited for a little bit
and then decided to go back in. It turns out it was ONLY IN OUR
ROOM!!!!!! Of course! 😂 So then we call the front desk and tell them
and they had US knock on everyone’s doors and tell them to evacuate to
the floor below. I got to be that annoying person who went into the
bathroom where people were showering and be like “umm get out ASAP and
leave” so that was fun. So here we all are, gathered in the hallways
of the second floor all because of our room. After about an hour, they
cleared it and so everyone was able to go back upstairs BUT it took
yet another hour for them to figure out how to turn the faulty alarm
off. So we got to bed PAST 10:30 😭 sad day hahhaha but quite funny.
We got to hear from another general authority this week, Elder
Soares!! It was awesome. All the devotional really put into
perspective for me just how important missionary work is. I am so
blessed to be here. He told us about how we are constantly prayed for
by the prophet and by the 12 and something that he said struck me. He
said “not only do we love you, but we trust you.” Hmmmm.... it’s
strange that we’re all a bunch of 18,19,20 year olds and yet we’re
trusted by prophets and apostles to do the most important work that
can be done. Pretty crazy, but I’ve realized that maybe it’s because
we are actually the best for the job. I have seen the strongest of
testimonies from these young people and have witnessed so much power
and Spirit in the words that they speak. This really is the chance of
a lifetime to be surrounded by the Spirit day by day and be edified
and have my testimony strengthened every day.
Tagalog is AWESOME. I love the language. It is HARD though, don’t get
me wrong. Really hard. I can’t even say anything that isn’t Gospel
related haha. But it’s beautiful and it’s super cool!! It is nothing
like Spanish, y’all are liars;) Haha just kidding. There are some
borrowed words from Spanish but that’s about it. It’s definitely not
Latin based, the structure is soooo different! Very unique. I
absolutely love it.
Hmm what else... I love you all! I pray for you everyday. Thank you
soooo much for those of you that sent me cute Valentines and packages!
I am the most spoiled missionary EVER.
Mahal Kita,
Sister Stewart

Linggo Apat!

Hello po everybody!! It’s Sister Stewart here.

This week, I promise to keep my email short! Sorry they’ve been soooo
long lately haha just exciting things to tell!
So I got to see Elder John Hellewell yesterday so that was AWESOME!!!!!
He’s one of my best buds from high school and my previous ASB
president:) I also saw my cousin and cousin in law who work here
YAYYYYYY!!!!!!! It’s so exciting to see people I know!
Tagalog is hard. There’s so many types of verbs and depending on the
type you use, it changes the sequence of words in the sentence. Urgh.
We had to do this oral assessment thing on the computer and I was
literally just laughing at myself the whole time because I didn’t know
how to say ANY of it! Oh well... I know I’ll get there someday!
New people came to our branch YAYYYY!! By the way, I don’t know if
I’ve  told you this, but our zone owns the volleyball court;) It’s
mandatory for everyone in branch 16 to play. It’s so much fun, it’s
one of my favorite things we do here!
Hmmm what else... Our district is singing on Sunday. We’re singing
“Come Follow Me” half Tagalog/half English and everyone literally
whispers it when we practice so I feel like I’m singing a solo.
Please, any advice to get them to sing louder would be greatly
appreciated!
We had an AMAZING devotional by Sister Joy D. Jones, the primary
general president. It was seriously one of my favorites so far. Her
husband spoke too and he told his conversion story. In high school, he
started attending seminary just because he was curious. His parents
were chain smokers and so he always smelled like smoke. He later found
out that no one ever talked to him in that seminary class because they
thought he was a smoker. Please please PLEASE don’t judge! Who cares
if someone smokes or doesn’t. The choices they make don’t define their
worth. Another thing that I loved was when Sister Jones spoke about
the children all over the world that she’s responsible for. They are
being bombarded with things in this world that people that young never
had been before. She told us to help her by sharing our testimonies
more with our siblings and showing them what it’s like to be a
missionary for Jesus Christ.
I’ve started realizing more and more how important my role as a
missionary is. This is the most important work on the earth, and I get
to be a part of it. I know that God loves us. I know that families can
be together forever. I cannot wait to tell the world that amazing
news! That the literal church that Jesus Christ established is back on
the earth. God’s plan of happiness is beautiful. The message I carry
in those small blue books is priceless.
I love you all. Don’t forget that power comes with prayer. Any
question you have, anything you’re struggling with, talk to Heavenly
Father in prayer. He’s waiting to hear from you, I know it.
Mahal Kita,
Sister Stewart

Week Tatlo!

 The Zone!! We're known for being the most obedient :)

 When the kind people sent pictures to our mothers and gave us cookies

 Me trying to memorize the First Vision in a language I don't know wooo

This is what our schedule looks like.  This is the schedule for next week.

Mga kaibigan at pamilya!!

I love you all and I pray for you! I hope all is well. Thank you for
all of you who have emailed me. I’m able to read them throughout the
week and each one is soooo exciting and very appreciated!!
For anyone who doesn’t know what some of the weird words I say and
stuff like gift of tongues or Spirit or something haha go to
Mormon.org and you can just search anything on there!:)

This past Sunday, I was able to give a talk in Tagalog in sacrament
meeting and teach a lesson in our district council. The talk I gave
was on baptism and I had a very strong feeling I was going to speak so
when he said my name over the pulpit, I was not surprised. Although I
was mostly concentrating on the language, people told me after that
they were able to feel the Spirit. The Gift of Tongues is real!

My lesson was actually a really awesome experience. We talked about
seeing ourselves as God sees us and the Holy Ghost filled the whole
room. The coolest part was when I was testifying, the words I was
saying were not my own! I didn’t even think about what I was saying,
it just came. I know it was what they needed to hear and what I needed
to hear. My companion did the same thing. Her testimony is so strong.
She is such a good example to me. Oh and by the way... this lesson was
in mostly English!

My favorite scripture in the Book of Mormon is Alma 26:12 which says
“Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore
I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his
strength I can do all things”. In His strength, I do everything. This
week, the thing I pondered about most was how much I rely on Heavenly
Father and my Savior. We would be nothing without Them. We would
always be sorrowful... never finding relief from our challenges. We
would not be able to be cleansed of our sins. We would gradually and
quickly get farther and farther away from ever finding joy. But with a
Savior and with our Heavenly Father, we are loved beyond measure. We
can find rest. Their arms are always opened wide for us, all we need
to do is fall into them.

I got to teach our first TRC lesson on Monday! These people are
typically returned missionaries who speak Tagalog. No English is
allowed of course, and you just get to know them and share a message.
We talk about how families can be together for eternity, and it was
really neat! One of the women we taught had a baby with her 😍

Tagalog is crayyyyzzzayyyy right now. We have to memorize 72 words a
day, 15 phrases a day, and the First Vision by Sunday. I’m almost done
with the first vision but I have to say it so so slowly and think
about every word hahah! As for the other goals....well, I just try my
best! It’s so much work haha. But I’m definitely getting help from
above and can see it in every lesson I teach! It still blows my mind
when I can understand what people say to me hahah.

The weeks are speeding up! Yayyy!! I can’t wait to be in the
Philippines but I do love it here. We got to hear from Elder Holland

which was amazing!! He gave us missionaries a much needed pep talk and

also discussed the importance of obedience. The devotionals here are
sooooo awesome I love it!

I love you! Please pray and thank Heavenly Father for all that He has
given you. Magandang hapon!
Ingat,
Sister Stewart