Elder Wood, Elder Elder Vakapuna, ME, Sister Vaiaoga (aking kasama),
Sister Reynolds, at Sister Prisbrey
um snow.
These are the sisters going to Quezon City (we also have an elder in our branch going)
First, I wanna let you all know that I am soooo happy!! I’m loving it
here. But I also wanna leave here. Haha I am so eager to get to the
Philippines!
My district is the best! We’re like family now. Our hearts broke on
Saturday, though, because one of our two elders went home. We don’t
know why, just one day Elder Wood joined our district as Elder
Vakapuna’s kasama and Elder Cooper was gone 😠It was really hard.
But, Elder Wood fit right in to our pamilya! We’re super glad to have
him.
Our schedule finally became a little more normal this week. The first
week at the MTC was truly crazy in comparison. It’s so weird to think
I’ve only been here a week and a half... it literally feels like we
should be almost done! I don’t know why. I think things will probably
speed up now.
On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to be a host for new missionaries!
This means I got to run to their family car and greet them and their
families as they got dropped off. It was soooo much fun and so
exciting! A lot of the hosts cried because we had to watch people say
goodbye to their families and it reminded them of their’s.
I can’t remember who told me this, I think maybe Nate (shout out to
Nate!!). He told me that if I wanna be an English teacher in the
future, I’m gonna have to take English classes again after my mission
because I’ll forget a lot of it. Oh my gooooodddneeesssss he’s right!!
I am already forgetting some English I’m not even kidding 😂 We speak
Taglish 24/7. We try to speak mostly Tagalog, but what we don’t know
we fill in with English. It’s pretty funny it’s like we’re speaking a
3rd language!
We have now taught a tinituruan, or interested person, four times! The
first time was absolutely terrible. We’re only allowed to speak
Tagalog and the first time we just... well, failed. It was awful. That
was the first time we cried in the MTC 😂 All the other lessons have
been really fun and awesome though! I love that you can feel the
Spirit even when you barely know the language. The gift of tongues is
real!! I have found that in my lessons, I can almost completely
understand what ang tinituruan says! Even though it’s things I haven’t
even learned yet or things that I shouldn’t be able to understand.
It’s really amazing.
Elder Godoy from the presidency of the 70 gave our Tuesday night
devotional and it was SOOOO GOOOD!!!!!!!!! He made me so excited about
my mission and the Espiritu Santo was so strong. He told us of his
conversion story and of the sister missionaries who taught him. It’s
crazy to think that someone like me brought him to the church, and now
he’s a general authority (someone who’s super important in the
church)! It was actually a really spiritual experience for me because
afterwards, we sang “I Need the Every Hour” and it was almost like I
could see someone that I had converted singing that song, especially
the last line “Oh bless me now my Savior, I come to Thee”. I cried and
cried!! Haha it really was so awesome. I got to sing in the choir for
that devotional which is literally half the MTC hahha
I saw Elder Reno Rencher after the Sunday night devotional!!!!! The
night he left for Japan! Haha we had both been looking all over for
each other. He said “I really wanted to find you because I have
something I have to tell you. Tanner is here! He’s on our missions
with us.” For those of you who don’t know, Tanner is my cousin who
died over 3 years ago. He never got to serve a mission here on earth.
Elder Rencher told me this with such excitement that I almost bursted
with tears of joy right then! It was something I really needed to
hear. Never ignore promptings from the Spirit!
Mahal kita! I love you all. Jeez, I’m sorry my emails are so long!
Haha I just have so many awesome things to tell!!
Ingat,
Sister Stewart
