First letter from MTC!

September 4. 2012

 

Pamilya!!! (That is not a typo-- the letter "F" doesnt exist in Tagolog.) 

So my preparation day is Tuesday and thus it is the only day that I am allowed to write you. When we arrived we were allowed to writed you a letter since we were new but sadly due to slow postage (and, let's be honest, your slow to put mail in the mailbox daughter) you will probably get this emial before my first letter. I have a 30 minute time limit so I will try not to be to scatter brained but there is so much I want to say. 

First off, I love you so much! I hope that you are all doing well. How is German going for Nathan? Is Tyler still liking his teacher at school? I hope Jacob is enjoying senior year.

Tagalog was really hard to start but I am loving it now. It is so excting to be learning a new language and I am glad I get the opportunity. We did learn “Mabuti” on the first day! :) It made me smile. Mabuti naman however in exact translation is "That's wonderful." Just so you know. :) Um some other stuff about the language.... The letters "c" and "v" also dont exist which is fun. Umm... to make something plural you put a 'mga' in front of the word. I hoep I can eventually master the prununciation of that. haha.

We taught our first lesson (in complete Tagalog) to an "investigator" on Friday which was crazy! Friday was definitely rough. The whole day was just kind of overwhelming, but not in an I'm drowning kinda way, just a "I hope it doesn’t stay like this too long" kinda way. :) Other than that the days have been great! I am absolutely loving the MTC. My district is so awesome. We have 4 pairs of Elders and 2 pairs of sisters, whom I love. We have so much fun in our rooms for the 1 hour we have to unwind from each busy day. The district always makes meals fun and we are laughing all the time (when we don't need to be serious, of course) ;)

 I am currently enjoying the meals here. They are for the most part delicious and well balanced. It does seem like we have been here forever however. It seriously blows my mind that Josh hasn't started school yet and that mom hasn’t even flown out to Idaho yet.

So we have taught our investigator 3 times since the first time and it has gotten slightly better each time. This last time we actually came out of the room with smiles on our faces so we look forward to getting even better. It is rough because teaching someone the whole gospel is hard enough in English and we are doing it with our very limited vocabulary of Tagalog. However, by the third day here I had completely memorized how to say a VERY simple prayer and bear a VERY simple testimony which was thrilling.

Thank you for your letter. And also thank you to Bammer and Madison. I will write you back it just takes a while since I can only write on Tuesdays. All three of the letters I got came at rough points so they are much appreciated. I don’t have anyone’s addresses, so if you want a letter send me your address please!

We got to go to the temple this morning which was wonderful. So great! Um.. we have been told if we see anyone at the temple or anywhere that we know to simply shake their hands, tell them we can't talk and walk away. Just in case anyone thought they could come catch me Tuesdays, don't try it. haha. :)

Well I have been thinking of things I want to tell you all week but I don't know what is left. Gym is way fun. I run sometimes but really love to play volleyball. It is a blast. I only wish we could play ultimate. :)

Well I love you so much!! Hope all of you are doing great. I miss you, but don't worry... not too much (yet). :)

Love,

Sister Hamm