December 27, 2013

December 27, 2013

Mom- I can say my prayers in Tag-lish, and since it's easier to say "Nagpapasalamat po ako para sa/kay..." I've been more thankful in my prayers recently. I'm so sorry about pictures, it turns out I forgot the USB cable for my camera, unless it's hiding really well in one of my suitcases, and I can't plug my SD into the computer unless my district gets the laptops and so far we've only had the regular computers.

Christmas was great! I'm sorry that I wasn't able to talk more about it on Wednesday, but I'd like to start out by saying that my district is so awesome. Our district decided to do Secret Santa and it was so much fun. We all drew names last week before our P-day so we had some time to quietly figure out what to get them from Rustan's, the little grocery store down the street that missionaries are allowed to go on P-day, for Pasco. I got Sister Dalley. She is such a sweetheart. Poor Sister Davis got Elder Toupo, who is one of the coolest missionaries ever, and had no idea what to get him. Our whole district on P-day had so much fun going through Rustan's trying to get their Secret Santa gift without letting the recipient know who they had and we were there for almost the whole time allotted to us for shopping there and at the Distribution Center. Sister Davis and I wanted to get a set of Tagalog scriptures to help with our study so we got over to the Distribution Center during our last ten minutes of "shopping time" and to our suprise: 1)All the Tagalog scriptures were gone, except for the Bible, and 2) there were a lot of people there. So we both grabbed a Tagalog Bible and I grabbed a Tagalog Hymn book, and got into line as quickly as possible. Standing right behind us were a couple of Sisters serving in the Manila mission so we started talking to one since the other one was on the phone answering a call from some of their investigators. I'm am very grateful that I came to the MTC here, the Sister we were talking to is from California and she went to the MTC in Provo and she was talking about how she had jet lag on the first day in the field. Not very fun when you have to focus and speak in a language you hardly know and walk around for 16 hours. We unfortunately weren't able to make our purchase due to the time we were there, but it's good to know that things get a lot easier out in the field, that some things just take time to get used to and you will. 

Christmas Eve, we had a devotional with Elder and Sister Nielson, of the Seventy, who is in charge of the Philippines missions came. And the MTC choir, aka all the missionaries in the MTC, sang a Christmas medly and I was asked to direct the music. There are some things those who are preparing or planning on going on a mission should learn: memorize the scripture masteries you have in Seminary (at least what they talk about and their references), memorized the Articles of Faith (all of them, completly), the importance of prayer and doing it morning and night, daily scripture study, and either how to play the piano or to lead music. It was kind of sad how many times the senior Sister thanked me for leading the music. I forgot how much I love directing hymns, actually. I loved Elder Neilson's talk that he gave, he spoke on how we can become better disciples of Christ and the main thing he spoke about was submitting our will to the Father's will and that through the Enabling/Strengthening Power, not just the Healing Power, of Christ's Atonement helps us to become His disciples. Afterwards, we went to the kitchen to have donuts and then we got the brilliant idea to have a snowball fight in the hallway by our classroom, using the napkins from the kitchen. That was probably the most fun 15 minutes ever. 

Chirstmas day we went down and exchanged gifts and it was so funny because Elder Niwelua ( I can't spell his name right) came in with a light layering of a shaving cream beard. So yes there are fake Santas here too Boo. Everyone liked their gifts and I am so grateful for the candy and the new "Preach My Gospel" in Tagalog (yay!) and the Articles of Faith in Tagalog (yay!). Then we watched the Live broadcast from Provo for thier Christmas Eve devotional, that was very uplifting. Later in the day, all the districts sang Christmas songs and it was very cool. We watched some uplifting Christmas videos, including "It's a wonderful life," "Mr. Kruger's christmas," and "The other Wiseman." Then we went to the temple grounds again to take pictures.

Today we were actually able to go into the temple, our time last week got filled up with the incoming missionaries families, and can I just say again how special the temple is to me and that it really is the Lord's house and to encourage everyone to either become or to remain worthy to enter into the temple.

I know I am where I am supposed to be right now. I love you all very much and you are always in my prayers. Make it an awesome day!

Sister Jones