So Sister W and I had a great one week long run as district
music coordinators until we were released on Sunday and called as the
new sister coordinating leaders. It's basically the female equivalent of a zone
leader. We are in charge of helping all the missionaries in our zone with any
needs or questions especially all the sister missionaries. Basically my job is
to be everyone's friend and so that means it's the best job in the world. I
love my zone so much. As a leader, we have a ton of meetings and last Sunday i
was literally in meetings or teaching classes from 8:30AM to 9:30PM. haha
Shoutout to bishops who always work that hard every single Sunday (and
more). Spiritual work is hard work and i really appreciate everyone who works
so hard and is so dedicated to their callings. Thank you for being great
examples to me!
Our zone now has 6 sisters and about 50 Elders so I feel a
little outnumbered but mostly I just feel like I have 50 little brothers. The
Elders are all so sweet and funny and I love talking and getting to know them.
It's funny because the Elders always play this game at meals called "what
are the odds" where they say something like "what are the odds I
carry everyone's trays for them" and then they say between one and
something else and if they say the number at the same time they have to do it.
It's really silly and they get pretty creative after being at the MTC a while.
haha They say the orange juice here makes you sick and you shouldn't drink it
but I think the real culprit probably the bugs and napkins and spoonfuls of
salt they eat from that game. haha:)
Also the Elders in my district are so awesome and Elder W
and I always laugh so hard whenever we are paired together. I honestly don't
even know what it is but we DIE laughing like laugh-so- hard- your-stomach-
hurts- and- you- can't- breathe. Probably because we are both so awful at
speaking Tagalog and partially because he has the best laugh like those ones
that are super contagious. Like I will go to work with the Elders and try and
be super deadpan and serious as their investigator as they teach me and they
will start laughing at me because apparently I have a funny face (rude.) and I
will say 100% serious "This is anything but a joke. Do you think my
eternal salvation is a joke" and then they just laugh even harder which
makes me laugh and it's so great. and once we start laughing the whole class
starts laughing which is bad because we distract class but good because the
more you laugh the longer you live.(apparently) This week, I was feeling a
little down and I think Brother Kaka could tell so he puts us all into pairs to
work on vocab and he puts Elder W and i together because he says "You two
always laugh" and I go "Then why would you put us together?" and
he says "Because it's funny." haha We did laugh and so did our
teacher and so did the class and I swear there is a power in laughter that can
make any bad day 100% better.
Also side note but I am totally moving to Australia after my
mission. Just putting that out there. Everyone I meet from Australia or New
Zealand are the coolest people in the world. I just want to be like them! haha
Oh and this week sister W and I were running at the gym and
while you run you can watch mormon messages and it is my favorite thing ever. I
actually like working out now haha go figure. And as I was watching the
message, I saw the one with my friend Olivia Madsen! I was totally bragging
about how i was friends with a mormon celebrity to all the people in the Gym
and then the next day I got a package of delicious homemade brownies from her
and her mom! They were so great and I shared them with my district and teachers
and got some brownie points! haha see what I did there. Thank you so much! Lot
you guys! Also got a package from my uncle rodger last week and it was so
great! Thank you so much!:)
This week was really great in progressing in Tagalog, no
matter how slow because I am starting to understand basically everything the
people we teach say and answer their questions in my super broken Tagalog. It's
so exciting. Don't get me wrong, I have a long way to go. Even our teacher
starting laughing at Sister W and I this week because he said our Tagalog
was just super super bad. BUT HEY! At least we are trying. We did this thing
called TRC(teaching resource center) where we went and shared a little
spiritual message and conversed with RM's acting as themselves sa Tagalog. It
was so great, even though i messed up a lot. haha It was funny because the
first guy we talked to, I accidentally asked "Ano ang what" which is
essentially "What is what" or "how do you say what" As I
said it I realized my mistake and we all cracked up. After that i came to find
out that there are cameras in the rooms we teach in and our teachers watch it
to critique. Do you know how awful that is as a super paranoid person to have
your fears validated by being told that there are literally cameras you can't
see watching you all the time. NOT COOL. NOT COOL AT ALL.
The next girl we talked to told us about how on her mission
she found out who she really was and she knows we will too. So far my mission
has taught me that I cannot speak Tagalog and I don't really know anything in
English either. It kind of feels like every single talent or skill i thought i
had is actually a thing I have to change about myself and nothing is right. BUT
The Lord has 18 months to make me better and what he wants me to be and so I'll
try to just be patient. Makes me kind of think of how when you clean your room
or reorganize it, it always gets worse and you see how bad everything is and
it's so messy, even messier than before you started. But once you work at it
for a while everything fits into place and it's much better than it was before.
That's kind of what i feel like Heavenly Father is doing with me. He is showing
me weaknesses i didn't even know I had and everything seems a bit of a mess now
but i know that once he is done changing me i will be better than I ever
could have been on my own.
I know the language is starting to come along though because
some of the words I say often like hello, thank you, your welcome, etc. are
starting to become first nature and I accidentally answer sa Tagalog first
which is so AWESOME. Also this week, I was walking past an Elder and he says
"Hi, how's it going" and I literally couldn't even answer him because
what he said sounded familiar but i had no idea what language he was speaking.
Someone hasn't said hello to me in English is way too long. haha So even if
progressing a little bit in my language means I become a weirdo who can't
respond to people when they say hello to me. i will GLADLY take that.
Seriously! So happy for small improvements haha.
This week I had a really neat experience that made me
realize that Heavenly Father really does know and love me and that I am
supposed to be here at this time with these people learning this language and
going to the Philippines.
I also got to see my BYU friends sister read and sister
rhodes so that was great.
Better run, going to try to send pictures this week!
Muhal kita!
Sister Turner
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